Google local, UK-style

Just watching the CNBC people gloating about how well Google has done in its Q1 numbers, my natural reaction (as an American ex-pat of 10 years) was to think "you guys think America is the internet." Well, as we say down South, "shut my mouth." Google local in a truly local UK context looks to be pretty kickass, and I can personally vouch for that. However, as far as I can see, the short-term threat to players in the directory space seems to be limited to the UK and other English-speaking countries. Longer term, I imagine it's going to take a lot of investment and work (like hiring people with language skills and local knowledge) to get to grips with markets like Germany and France, let alone China and India.