To increase physical activity, local elected officials commit to mapping local playspaces, completing a community needs assessment, developing an action plan and launching a minimum of three proven policies, programs or initiatives aimed at increasing access to play.

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Mr McClendon himself acknowledges "local advertising is going to be a critical part of any mapping or local search experience".

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The Seeing Is Believing West Africa project is mapping local areas to provide more in depth information to farmers via their phones.

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Bu now, in terms of mobile mapping, local businesses have to worry about both how they are represented on two platforms instead of just Google.

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Google, for its part, is putting out new features in Android that will make it stronger in location services, including mapping, 3D, and local advertising.

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Apple said its new version of its "virtual assistant" Siri, which has been criticized as incomplete, contains more local business information, supports more languages and integrates with its new mapping app.

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Even geekier, you can use mapping software to input any road with elevation info, even my local races, into the system.

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Think in terms of mapping incidents of violence and peace efforts in South Africa, Gaza or Pakistan, or monitoring local elections in India.

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According to him, local search requires the right combination of a myriad factors, such as Yellow Pages, personal reviews, mapping and even social networking.

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