Granted, Froogle’s local shopping feature is inventive. But is it all that effective? I suppose you would have to ask the shop keepers to find out for sure.

Google’s Froogle shopping search engine added a new feature to let people find products and services for sale in bricks-and-mortar stores near locations they designate.

For example, if you wanted to find all the stores selling cameras near Newport Beach, California, a search for cameras newport beach or cameras 92663 brings back matching results, both in a list and plotted on a map. You can also search just for cameras, then enter a ZIP code, city or state into a second search box that will appear.

How is this different from just doing a search on Google Local? Well, you can compare. Here’s cameras 92663 on Google Local. You’ll see that camera stores are listed in Google Local, while Froogle lists individual cameras for sale in various locations. [Read the rest]