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Users of the mobile version of Google Product Search can now see if items are in stock at a local store from select retailers. These retailers include: Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm.

Product listings from these retailers will have blue dots that can be tapped to see an "in stock nearby" link, which takes you to a seller’s page where it will either say "in stock" or "limited availability". In addition, these pages will show you how far away the store is from your location (assuming you have My Location enabled or have manually specified your location).

The feature is available for iPhone, Palm WebOS, and Android users in the U.S. Users can hit the "more" link, and select "Shopping" or find the "Shopping results" section in Google’s Universal Search results when searching from Google.com.

Google offers a form for retailers who are interested in participating in this program. Google says to make sure you have your Local Business Center data up to date and to ensure your Product Search data is in "great shape."

Gowalla is a service that has been getting a lot of buzz lately. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a location-based social networksing service that comes in the form of mobile apps. Gowalla announced today, the availability of Gowalla 2.0 for the iPhone 3G and 3GS platforms.

Gowalla highlights the following new features with this version:

- Design – Gowalla developers have created a fresh new experience that is more flexible, readable and usable.

- Photos – Gowalla 2.0 gives users the ability to not only check in and create new spots; they can also upload a photo after checking in, browse photos from friends and see photos taken at that spot.

- Checkin Commenting – Now when a friend checks in someplace, other users in the community are able to tell that friend what they think.

- Multiple checkin messages – Users now have more opportunities to add messages even after they’ve left a checkin spot. Skipped typing a message? Come back and add one.

- Hot spots – The most popular spots nearby will be highlighted for users in a particular area to discover.

- Browse friends – and friends of friends. Browsing friends’ bookmarked spots and creating trips are two new features put in place by Gowalla’s developers by popular demand.

- Facebook, Twitter and web links – Building your Gowalla network is easier than ever with more ways to stay connected with friends through Facebook, Twitter and web links.

- Spot details – Address, phone numbers, Twitter names, Facebook pages and website will now be available in several checkin spots.

Gowalla will be heavily involved in SXSW (of which WebProNews will be covering the Interactive portion). Gowalla has updated its SXSW mini-site that details all of the SXSW initiatives the company will be rolling out, including: real world rewards, competitions, challenges and events.

When Twitter users go to post a new tweet, they have in the past used a button that says "update" (at least from Twitter.com…that varies when you get into all the different apps Twitter users use). Now, that button says "Tweet".

We’re not sure exactly when the change was made, but it appears to have been very recently, as there is quite an outpour of Tweets from users mentioning that they are now seeing the "tweet" button. Perhaps this is Twitter way of asserting some kind of ownership of the word and the brand that it carries.

Twitter made "retweeting" an official feature last year, after the community-born practice grew to mainstream use.

Interestingly, Retweet.com just sold for $250,000 this week.

The tweet button isn’t the only new thing going on with Twitter’s website this week. Twitter is currently in the process of rolling out geolocation features on the site, after having had such capabilities available via the API since November.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams will be speaking at SXSW early next week (WebProNews will be there covering it). We may get more interesting news from the company there (some expect an ad platform to be announced).

Update: Looks like some have noticed this for at least a couple days.

Last fall, Twitter started including geolocation information in its API, but it was not available through Twitter.com. That appears to be in the process of changing now.

This week, Twitter has been rolling out (it appears to still be in the process) geolocation info on tweets at Twitter.com. Various reports from users have been circulating, with those who have access to the feature pointing to a little blue icon by the tweet source on individual tweets, which when clicked, shows location information on a Map (powered by Google Maps).

The feature (as most new Twitter features do) is already receiving some criticism from users who have access to it. For example, Kim-Mai Cutler with VentureBeat says Twitter’s geotagging is "far from what Twitter needs to be a real player in location."

Cutler adds, "First, the new maps feature isn’t turned on for Twitter’s search results. The whole point of location-based search is to be able to find what’s actually happening around you right now. Instead, Twitter tosses a few such tweets into a wash of noise…"

Earlier this week, news of Facebook readying location features surfaced. The company is expected to launch something along these lines at its f8 conference in May. Location players getting the most buzz currently are Gowalla and Foursquare. They you have Google, of course. This may be the most interesting space to watch as the year progresses. It will be quite interesting to see how mainstream location sharing becomes when it comes to consumers.

Are you seeing the geolocation information showing up at Twitter.com? Do you intend to share your location when tweeting?

Pick a road, any road.  So long as it’s in the UK, there’s a good chance Google will be able to provide you with pictures taken from it.  Today, the search giant made much more Street View imagery available, meaning its photographs now cover about 238,000 miles – or 96 percent – of British roads.

The figure below tells most of the story if those numbers don’t do it for you.  As you can see, just about every street in the UK has been navigated by camera-equipped cars (along with an assortment of trikes), leading to nearly total coverage.

Google did all of this rather quickly, too, considering that the first pictures of the UK were only released in March of last year.

Of course, Google’s face- and license-plate blurring technology is in full effect, so privacy advocates shouldn’t have too much to worry about.  Many people in the UK are instead viewing this accomplishment as a positive thing, with tourism officials especially excited.

Meanwhile, there’s still a concern that the European Union will force Google to keep Street View images for just six months, as opposed to one year.