Google Local: Forcing Search Corrections Without Notice

April 5, 2007 · Filed Under Search Related 

In working with a client on their site this morning, I wanted to recommend that they submit their business to Google Local to help capitalize on local search. It’s a pretty straightforward process… Until Google thinks that you’re talking about Germany, when you’re really talking about New Jersey.

Best of all — Google just assumes you’ve misspelled something. No hint of a correction — they just force you to the incorrect results.

Here’s what I found while searching for “Colonia Ford“…

Search Results for

According to Wikipedia, Ford Köln was actually the German version of the Ford Model Y produced in the German plant in Cologne between the years of 1932 and 1935.

Still — where are Google’s corrections? There’s no instance of “Did you mean:” or any other notes that the search was corrected or altered… But it’s clearly being changed from “Colonia” to “Köln” without notice.

Tags:

Related Posts

Comments

2 Responses to “Google Local: Forcing Search Corrections Without Notice”

  1. Paul OFlaherty on April 5th, 2007 9:21 am

    Even the correction itself is weird as it’s jumping two steps instead of one..

    It’s assuming Colonia is wrong, then based on that spelling its assuming you were using the English spelling of a German name.

    I can’t understand why it would make those jumps when Colonia is a valid search.

    Maybe they’re experimenting with a new algorithim or something?

  2. Paul OFlaherty on April 5th, 2007 9:22 am

    10 points to me for spelling algorithm wrong :)

Leave a Reply