Yesterday Google debuted a new, enhanced local search capability on mobile. One of the new features that was added was “starred places” — a favorites list that could be created online and then retrieved (if signed in) through a mobile browser. This useful feature is part of an emerging, larger strategy to more closely link Google’s PC and mobile search.

Google yesterday announced that past search queries entered online will now show up in mobile as suggestions:

Today in the US we’re launching Personalized Suggest for Android, iPhone and Palm WebOS, which makes it really easy to repeat your past searches on the go. For example, suppose that before I depart for the airport, I quickly check my flight status by searching for “american airlines 19″ using google.com on my computer.

These are very helpful tools and capabilities for end users for self-evident reasons. But for Google, which is already the dominant search engine in mobile, this is a way to “lock in” its users by leveraging its dominance on the PC into mobile.

Related Topics: Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling