Yeah, they're trying to get more of that local money while also trying to make it harder to game their search engine. I am sure all of this will just serve to funnel more folks into eventually paying for Adwords.
Plus they're starting to focus more on social signals since that's harder to game.
http://www.newsreach.co.uk/seo/cutts-google-to-increase-focus-on-social-signals-in-search
Also coming this October, them fuckers are making their once free service - Google Products, go from free to paid listings.
http://searchengineland.com/google-...-google-shopping-use-pay-to-play-model-122959