Please clarify the use of the property 'local'

[HesterLyons]

Hi,

I'm using this on IntelliJ to see what the code is doing. I cannot see in the current setup at which point the 'if (System.getProperty("local") ...' statement in SearchSteps is being used - it is not used by the local test feature. If I run the tests with mvn install -Dlocal=true they fail. What is the purpose of this code block?

Secondary question: is there a way to set the browser in IntelliJ, or is this only possible through command line?