Any known logic behind local.google.com?

Hi,

I actually have 2 questions all relating to the same topic:

1. When you do a search for a local business through google.com, you normally see 3 businesses from local.google.com displayed on top of the search results. Does anyone know what is the criteria for being displayed there? Does it have anything to do with the ranking of the associated web site?

2. Follow-up to the previous question, when you search for local businesses on local.google.com, list of results comes up. Usually, what Google considers verified listings are displayed first, then unverified. Is there any method or logic to the order in which businesses are being displayed here?

Thank you for your time

 

Oddly enough, when I checked to see if my post was being viewed, I saw this thread right above mine

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=576507

While shedding some light on the manner, it still doesn't answer the main question - how do you get on top of that list and how do you get into those top 3 that show up when you search for local keywords in google.com?

Anyone?

 

Does anyone have any insights into this?

Thanks

 

I think they rank you by distance. they probably use your IP to best determine your location..

 

Thanks for response

I just checked, and the first 2 pages of results in local were pretty far from me, and only third page had a few listings close to me. Unless my IP is assigned to some CO.

But even further, the results are scattered location-wise, so I doubt that's it