Great post. I definitely see your point about not getting caught up in hype – you mention unfulfilled buzz around local – I’d add the whole vertical search thing to that).

Having said that, I have to say that I think that mobile will definitely become a major channel, especially for small business owners.

Paying attention to simple things like making sure that your content is tagged for location, invites user recommendations and the like, has got to be a sound investment – especially when you look at the huge leaps in what the phones can provide now.