Locality app does location based search with a few twists

There's no shortage of location-based search apps. One of my favorites is Around Me, but there are plenty of others. Smith Micro has come up with its own search app that has some nice additions, and misses a few things too.

The free app, called Locality, uses Google searching to find the nearest restaurants, pharmacies, hospitals, etc. It does that well, generating a list of places, or it can show them on a map. One nice feature is an 'Events' function, so you can see things that might be of special interest around you. Some things it found were local concerts, antique shows, and some commercial events like sales at local stores.

The app also features a selection of geo-tagged photos. They are provided by Panoramio, and it's a nice addition to this compact little app. Sadly, the photos are only one way affairs. You can see submitted photos, but you can't submit them from the Locality app. (Panoramio has a free app that lets you do this from your iPhone.) You can email the photos, or the app can give you directions to where the photo was taken. which is a useful feature. I'd like to see it do the same with pictures from your own camera roll.

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I gave the app a spin here in Southern Arizona. There were plenty of destinations to explore, although as is often the case with the Google data, it can be out of date. Some searches didn't go too well. A search for a keyword could get hits that were not relevant. It didn't happen all the time, but enough to be irritating.

I'd like to see some more detail in categories. Rather than just a broad restaurant search, I'd like to be able to search for Greek, or Italian or Thai food.

Favorites can be shared and bookmarked. The app is ad supported, and small strip of ads appear at the bottom of the screen. I did not find them intrusive.

Locality is good for what it is. It has a few added features, but lacks the ability to search with more precision. It's worth a download for your collection of travel and navigation related apps. Locality is a universal app for the iPhone and iPad.