With the advent of Google Boost, the search giant is pushing harder it's local advertising program. Geographic search is obviously becoming a huge growth area for Google's advertising program, which it has expanded on both a functional and promotional level with Tags and Boost.
The Google Local Search program has now pulled in about a hundred salespeople to focus more intently on selling local ads. The primary focus of this new sales force will be to help small businesses understand how to target customers within a local geographic region without the complexities of the formal Adwords program. The Places page for a business is the center-piece of this Google approach to local advertising.