Regular Internet users will know that Google is the main search engine used in Ireland. Now Google has added a further free facility, aimed at local businesses. The whole country is covered in great detail on Google maps, and now people using those maps can search for business in the map and have their full details including location displayed.

Conor O’Nolan from web design company Webwizards has been following online mapping developments for many years. "In the last year online maps from Yahoo and Google have become excellent free resources" said O’Nolan. Now local business can register their details free and be included on Google map searches. "This is particularly useful for truly local services like restaurants, solicitors, accountants etc. because not only does the user find the name and phone number, they can also see the exact street location" he said. To see how it works, go to maps.google.com and type ‘hotels Waterford Ireland’ into the search box. This brings up a listing and dots on the map showing where each business is. The map can be zoomed and moved around and you can even get driving directions to the business. "The really important thing" says O’Nolan "is that any business can register their details free so that their business can be found". The registration is available at www.google.com/local/add, but takes a while to setup. Webwizards has provided a guide to how it all works at www.webwizards.ie.