U.K. Internet company whereonearth.com announced Tuesday it has teamed with Yahoo! in a deal that will integrate its unique spatial information system into all of Yahoo!'s sites worldwide.

The service offered by whereonearth.com uses GeoLocata technology to perform searches that bring back information organized by location and proximity. In effect it uses what the company calls "the first digital map of the world," a database of more than three million place names, postal areas and points of interest.

Steve Packard, chief executive officer, whereonearth.com, said the deal showed that Yahoo! understands the importance of local services -- and sees that the world cannot be treated as one homogenous mass.

"Users want to search for information, order goods and services, whether they are in Acapulco, Atlanta or Antwerp. But the key to these services is location, location, and location," said Packard.

Packard went on to say that location is even more critical on the Wireless Internet because users are on the move, requesting information specific to where they are at anytime, anywhere.

Arthine Van Duyne, senior producer, Yahoo!, said that working with whereonearth.com would help to enhance and personalize the Yahoo! experience for consumers around the world.

During March this year, Steve Packard at whereonearth.com was named "Innovator of the Year" by the association for U.K. software and IT service companies, the CSSA.

With its innovative technology, whereonearth.com enables the creation of spatial indexes from datasets containing postal addresses. Once indexed, the information is very useful for answering questions along the lines of "Where's my nearest...?"

In turn, Yahoo! will be able to leverage its advertising services by offering a more localized delivery throughout its global networks.