Our expectations for the new year: in 2011, the previous development in the local search realm will be continued and expanded upon. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about search engines, city portals, online directories, or social networks: the importance of location-based services will not only continue to grow, but it will become more personalized and custom for its users.

Take the search engine giant Google for example – not only has the company made clear that it is transitioning into the world of local search with Google Places, but it has also displayed how intelligent the algorithm really is. If I need a taxi, all I need to do is type in “tax” and Google already recommends “taxi munich” as a search option. The specific results, or taxi locations, are conveniently displayed on a map. Or even more interesting: if I want to know how the weather is going to be, I just need to start giving in “weat” and not only is the weather shown as a possible search, but even the weather for Munich. The search engine is already quite familiar with the fact that I live in Munich.

This trend of personalizing information based on the users’ search behavior will not only grow within search engines. It will also expand to other information sources, especially in the mobile market, as this tendency will be further reinforced to customized users’ experiences through a combination of mobile devices’ localization functions and intelligence systems.

Social networks like Facebook, especially Facebook Places, check-ins like Foursquare, rating portals like Qype and golocal, and online coupon providers like Groupon have definitely caught on to the new trend. They have clearly recognized that users are ready to receive information that is useful and relevant to their current position, and quickly. But this isn’t only a process that will make users happy, but it will also cause a major boost in local online advertising. Through the “thinking” algorithms, companies have the ability to lock in customers through spontaneous online advertising that caters to the potential customer’s want.

What’s clear is that the various information sources like local search engines, social networks, rating portals, blogs, check-ins, and couponing portals will continue to flow in the same direction in the long run. What really matters is which portal offers the best bundle of goodies for the users.