Google just made sightseeing a whole lot easier

Thanks to a pretty handy update, you can now ask Google to give you information about a restaurant, store or landmark without having any idea what the place is called.

Google's Behshad Behzadi demonstrated the feature at Search Engine Land's SMX search marketing event, where the publication captured it in action. 

The new "location aware" search has been live for Android and the Google Search app for iOS for a few weeks, but Google didn't make much noise publicising it. It can now use where you are geographically to figure out what you're most likely to be talking about. 

One of Google's promotional videos showed a man in San Francisco asking how tall a nearby church is, what time the restaurant he wants to visit actually opens, and how tall the Coit Tower is, without mentioning any of their names. 

Another shows a woman who is really interested in the park she's in. 

 Behzadi tried out the new search himself, asking "how long is this river?"

That river happened to be the Seine, which is 776 km long.