Is Local Paid Inclusion for Real?

Miranda Miller of SearchEngineWatch dropped a bombshell today that Bruce Clay was rolling out a service to sell “Local Paid Inclusion” in Google, Yahoo & Bing local organic results to SMBs. From the site advertising the service:

“The way it works is simple: you create a legitimate places or local profile page, then you select up to 30 keywords for your location, then you pay, then you rank. Maybe it is not that simple, but almost.”

If this service is for real, it would be a pretty radical move, particularly for Google. And if it is for real, Bruce Clay, Inc. may soon be duking it out with Apple for the most valuable company crown.

UPDATE: After thinking about this for a few minutes I wonder if this is not just clever packaging on Bruce Clay’s part – basically a Google Places optimization service masquerading as “paid inclusion”?