The measuring distances thing is not really a big deal in my opinion. Many apps do the same thing. Yelp does a search in this area view, which I've used and tho

The measuring distances thing is not really a big deal in my opinion. Many apps do the same thing. Yelp does a search in this area view, which I've used and thought was a good implementation of searching in a map. Foursquare has a similar feature as well. The distance may not be entirely accurate, but it is good enough, and probably a better UI model.