I know its in beta, like almost everything else they release, but this is just embarrassing in my opinion. I was chatting with Gary Price at SES about Google Local. He showed me that Google Local for a search on What: "search engine" and Where: "mountain view ca", brought up Google Inc as number one (see here). Now he said if you try the number, 650-318-0270, it is the wrong number, I did not try it. Second thing, I noticed is that you see the hyperlinked URL "digitalpoint.com". Now what, at all, does that have to do with mountain view ca search engine companies? DigitalPoint is located in San Diego, they are not a search engine, and I think they are not even friendly with the company.
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Gary told me he discussed this with some one at Google and their response was something to the effect of "mistakes happen and Google is always working to improve the system". When I told this to Matt Cutts yesterday, he said, "oh really?"
Then Gary was kind enough to share some more fun examples of problems with Google Local, from my office town, Suffern, NY. This is what he emailed me:
Attorneys, Suffern NY http://local.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&q=attorneys&near=suffern+ny&btnG=Search&sc=1&rl=1
Lawyers, Suffern NY http://local.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&q=lawyers&near=suffern+ny&btnG=Search&sc=1&rl=1"
Results should be the same, IMHO
Also, according to a couple of other local directories, Suffern has a few italian restaurants. Google says just one and it's not the first result. http://local.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&q=italian+restaurants&near=suffern+ny&btnG=Search&sc=1&rl=1
