Hi kreechur,
Without knowing which phone, tablet, and laptop you are using, it is hard to provide answers specific to you. So I will speak to my own situation.
My Android phone has GPS enabled, and I have the Google locator services turned on, which allows the phone and apps installed on the phone to use the GPS data and information from nearby cell phone towers to determine the location of the phone and then to use that when doing searches or in the map/navigation app. So when using my phone, I see what you see when using your phone and tablet, location specific results in search and mapping.
My Windows 7 laptop doesn't have GPS, nor does it connect to the cell phone network, it just connects to the local network either through a hard connection, or over wi-fi. When I am in the local HP office here, and I visit a site that tries to personalize the experience by determining my location, that information isn't available, so it tries to guess what my location is based on my IP address. The result is that I often get results not for my current location, but for Palo Alto CA, which is where HP's corporate offices are at (and where my IP address here at work is registered), even though I live and work two states away.
If I do want to search my local area for a grocery store for example, then I would search Google Maps with "Grocery Stores near [my location]" and I'll get results specific to the location I specified.
Hope this helps.
R