Geographical location of webserver, is it important?

Hey

I wonder if geographical location of the webserver is important or can Google Webmaster Tool and some meta tags be used instead?

In Google Webmaster Tool I can specify what country the site is for and also put these meta tags on all pages on the site:
<meta name="country" content="United States" />
<meta name="geo.country" content="US" />

I ask because I live in Norway and have created a niche site (.org) with English content.

any suggestions?

It makes a difference from my experience.

In my cases the local search engine results were better than US results.

yes it makes a difference, google is wanting to be more localized - they have said so many times in various reports. also, the extension is important. for instance, a .us will have a much higher priority in the us than in other countries

Okay, I see next time I create a niche site I will be more selectful when choosing which country to have the webserver in.

Hope for my current niche site, using
<meta name="country" content="United States" />
<meta name="geo.country" content="US" />
can offer some kind of help for my ranking...