Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
in Yahoo Local
Yahoo Local Bug: San BuenaVentura Ca located just off African Coast
The City of San Buenaventura, Ca is usually referred to as Ventura. Google Maps correctly substitutes the name of Ventura for San Buenaventura but Yahoo Local seems a tad confused by the use of the name San Buenaventura in a local search query.
For example if you search on Florist+San Buenaventura Ca, it maps the location to just west of the Congo, smack dab in the South Atlantic Ocean about 750 to the west of the African coast, some 6000 or so miles away.
Equally interesting is that the search Florist+San Buenaventura Ca apparently returns every florist in the United States, all 61,035 of them.
Until this bug is fixed the search can provide approximate numbers of total Yahoo listings for any industry. On the search Restaurants + San Buenaventura, CA, Yahoo Local returns 747,782 listings and the number one restaurant is Giordanos Pizzeria in Chicago. I wonder how the pizza is.
Don’t you just love local?
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Comments
11 Comments
Welcome back, Mike!
Gosh, it’s been so quiet in your absence. I’m glad you’re back.
Weird bug, above! But the total count one is kind of interesting because of the numbers it provides.
Again, happy you’re back and blogging away.
Miriam
Thanks Miriam
We had fun but I am glad to be back too. Yes the count is interesting…I’ve been trying to think up a useful purpose for the count…it might provide some insight into ranking issues…
Mike
I live in Chicago, and so I can tell you from personal experience that Giordanos is very good. You can go to their site and they’ll ship you a pizza anywhere in the country. Just in case you want to try for yourself.
Hi Eric
Thanks for the info. I doubt that I will have one shipped. That seems a tad excessive and I must say, I think I make a pretty mean pizza myself. 🙂 But next time in Chicago I will try to get some.
Mike
Interesting that it is still acting that way. I used it to see how competative nationwide the two industries I am in. Pretty interesting to see the total number of companies listed. Could be used to start a pretty big mailing list. The interesting thing is the list also does not change when you click on distance or ranking. It does sort alphabetically.
David
The Yahoo Local API provides street address, city & url but not zip code so it might be a more efficient way than going through this list but it is possible that’s for sure.
Mike
[…] Blumenthal: Yahoo Local Bug: San BuenaVentura Ca located just off African Coast (I love the matter-of-factness of the […]
Just as an FYI – I’ve noticed that Yahoo has not been properly updating listings that I have edited. I’ve only check a small percentage of the 200 listings that were entered into Yahoo last week ( April 21st 2008) but 99 % of the listings checked had NOT been edited even though the email from Yahoo Local indicated that it had been.
Old method of payments, Hours of Operation & specialities were still visible, even though I didn’t add them & choose to ” edit my listing”. I’ve called Yahoo on their TF line and could only leave a message.
The preview of the listing was correct – the one you get prior to submitting your agreement & spam protection , once live it is the furthest thing from correct.
Has anyone else suffered from this problem?
Thanks
Joan
Giordano’s is awesome pizza btw..
Hi Brett,
We are heading to Chicago area at the end of June. Maybe we will get a chance to try it.
Mike
Hi,
I just came across this post looking for something else, but the reason that location probably appears to be in the ocean is that it is at latitude 0, longitude 0, which is probably the default if the city isn’t found.
Mike
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