8. A method comprising: receiving a search request by at least one server computer, the search request identifying search criteria; performing, by the at least one server computer, a search of geographically referenced information using the search criteria to identify search results, the search results comprising a plurality of result items, each result item of the plurality having associated text for a display of the search results and having an associated location; for each result item of the plurality, the at least one server computer determining a distance of the result item from a user's location using the user's location and the result item's associated location; and causing a communication of presentation data to a user device for the display of the search results, the display of the search results comprises the text for each of the plurality of result items, the presentation data operable to vary at least one appearance characteristic of the text of at least one result item of the search results based on the at least one result item's distance from the user's location, the result item's distance from the user's location is determined using the user's location and the at least one result item's associated location and one of the plurality of result items closest in distance to the user's location relative to other ones of the plurality of result items is displayed more prominently than the other ones of the plurality of result items, wherein the at least one appearance characteristic is selected from the group consisting of font size, font style, color, shading, three-dimensional height, associated features, and animation.
8. A method comprising: receiving a search request by at least one server computer, the search request identifying search criteria; performing, by the at least one server computer, a search of geographically referenced information using the search criteria to identify search results, the search results comprising a plurality of result items, each result item of the plurality having associated text for a display of the search results and having an associated location; for each result item of the plurality, the at least one server computer determining a distance of the result item from a user's location using the user's location and the result item's associated location; and causing a communication of presentation data to a user device for the display of the search results, the display of the search results comprises the text for each of the plurality of result items, the presentation data operable to vary at least one appearance characteristic of the text of at least one result item of the search results based on the at least one result item's distance from the user's location, the result item's distance from the user's location is determined using the user's location and the at least one result item's associated location and one of the plurality of result items closest in distance to the user's location relative to other ones of the plurality of result items is displayed more prominently than the other ones of the plurality of result items, wherein the at least one appearance characteristic is selected from the group consisting of font size, font style, color, shading, three-dimensional height, associated features, and animation. 11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the presentation data is further operable to vary the at least one appearance characteristic of the text of the at least one result item of the search results based on the at least one result item's distance from the user's location relative to at least one other result item's distance from the user's location.