Mike Ramsey from NiftyMarketing, a Boise Local Search Consultant, and frequent commenter Plamen have both spotted this new Google search results test with 10 Places results in the Everything Serps. Now the anti-IYP conspiracy theorists have something real to point to 
.
Oh boy wouldn’t this be nice! There is only one thing Google needs – Consistency! Not just for SEO’s but for everyone. I do searches on a Monday. On Tuesday – same searches – different results. Maybe it would help if I became religious and prayed in a church someplace, I don’t know.
I see different an 8-pack for “bail bonds sacramento ca” and a 7-pack for “bail bonds sacramento”. Really?
“bail bonds service Orlando fl” is a mixed bag of organic/blended/local.
“bail bonds service carson city nv” is an old school 7-pack.
Is there a particular importance to this specific 10-pack finding Mike?
Comment by Jeffrey Magner (82 comments) — December 1, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
@jeffrey
The only difference if you get religion is that your wallet will be lighter (the tithe) but it is unlikely to affect Google result consistency.
This particular search just happened to be the search that Plamen was doing when he saw the test result. I could not repeat it on my machine.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — December 1, 2010 @ 10:29 pm
@Jeffrey, 8 results are pretty normal for me now
Currently I see 9 results for “bail bonds service sacramento ca”. I’ve deleted my history and cookies about 15 minutes ago. Google loves me?
Comment by Plamen (68 comments) — December 2, 2010 @ 2:43 am
Here is another interesting result- blended results on Page 2 of the serps that Mike Wilter at Nevermoresearch found.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — December 2, 2010 @ 4:54 am
Interesting Mike…I just wonder when (and maybe if???) things will “settle” and we can all get back to standardized results…
…sigh…
Jim
Comment by Jim Rudnick (164 comments) — December 2, 2010 @ 11:01 am
@Jim
2020
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1962 comments) — December 2, 2010 @ 11:32 am
Interestingly enough in many search spaces in my industry we have been seeing this from day 1, so I don’t know that its really something being tested. I really think its more a query issues. In our testing we found at least 4 variations of the Places integration ranging from 10 results to 0 results. It all depends on query and relevance. That being said, I wouldn’t doubt that many of these variations are for clickthrough testing.
Comment by Mike Wilton (10 comments) — December 3, 2010 @ 1:13 am
@MikeW
Yes it does seem to be a permanent option although not showing consistently even for the same query. Or as you point out perhaps a permanent test.
It does imply that Google is willing, able and ready to show ALL local results on the main serps if there is enough data to create the result and the listings are strong enough….
I had not see it on a regular basis and that is likely due to the niches I was looking at not having enough of the right kind of strong locally optimized sites/listings.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — December 3, 2010 @ 7:48 am