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Linda Buquet who tracks local search changes like a hawk, posted in her Local Search Forums that Google has removed the local navigation button from the Google+ navigation menu.
Here are side by sides of the old navigation bar and the new:
As you can see, Google added Collections and dropped Local from the bar.
Google sent Linda the following statement:
We’ve been making some changes to Google+ to streamline the user experience. Recently, we’ve removed the Local element from the left-hand navigation ribbon and the local search box on Google+ Local pages. Users will see a Profile element and the standard Google+ search box moving forward and may still search for local (and other) pages using this search box.
Local is less important for social I guess than collections, which is Google's new Pinterest copycat.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.
