Businesses Upset Over Google Local Search Results

Odds are you did a search last week on Google and, if so, the odds are even greater that you searched for something locally; a restaurant, service provider or airfare from you local airport. The search results may have come in the from of a map or business listings, which likely provided you with the answer you needed faster than if you had used a third-party website. These results are upsetting to businesses that are seeing their webpages pushed down in the results by Google's own services.

Google results for credit card comparison, travel, health, shopping, restaurant reviews and more are routinely showing up ahead of third parties such as Bankrate, WebMD, Yelp and others. In a world where your Google search ranking can dictate the profitability of your business, this is a big deal. This practice has recently become more disruptive for Google's rivals due to the launch of more and more Google services like Google Places, Google Maps, Google Health and more.