Google recently introduced Search With My Location, a feature for Windows Mobile users, based on Google Gears’ geolocation API. This service automatically uses Cell-ID data from your nearest cell-towers, or GPS readouts from GPS-equipped mobiles to get your location data and display results relevant to that location.

While a similar service has been provided by Google before, it gave localized information based on the last location you typed in. Now with this system you can simply type “pizza” for instance into Google’s search box on your Windows Mobile, and Google will look for all pizza places near to your location.

The system can use the triangulation technique to give an approximate location based on the nearest three cell-towers or if your phone has a GPS system, it gives the latitude and longitude directly. While the second method is more accurate, Google have stated that cell-ID location is much faster than GPS geolocation and in addition drains battery life much more slowly.

To address privacy concerns, Google has stated that no personally identifiable information would be linked to the location broadcast to Google by your phone, even if you are logged in to Google. Additionally, users can disable the Search With My Location feature by using the Gears Settings menu.

Google is not the first to use this geolocation system, as the iPhone has implemented location services early this year using either cell-ID or a database of Wi-Fi hotspots. With the release of the iPhone 3G, which has GPS built-in, the system is much more accurate.