Google locals has always been a pleasant addition to the overall google experience in the last few months. Only days back someone told me the pay-to-blog site ibibo.com has added a Locals service comparable to Google Locals.  I am listing my observations here ( http://rahaban.rediffiland.com/scripts/xanadu_diary_view.php?postId=1190993181 )
overall it DOES look like google has competition in locals even from small players. From the results of somewhat random ten queries in and around noida it looks like both the products still have a long way to go. Since I wanted to compare on the basis of result quality alone, I have not looked other parameters like user-friendliness closely ....  

For Google, certain  "Did you mean"s are  pretty annoying. I donot really understand how "NOIDA" , "noida" and "NOIDA,NOIDA" are different when you search for "icici banks" near "noida". I donot also  understand why in a India specific site searches for"connaught place" gives Canada, US and UK cities to choose from ....

Google displays maps in US version of this product. I wonder what happens when the same comes to India.