The guys and gals over at Google are always working hard to make things better.  For a while now they have been trying to integrate local information into the Google search results.  It makes sense when you search for “new york city plumbers” or “90210 realtors”.  Those are likely to be search attempts for local providers and not someone looking for general information.  But in my humble opinion I think Google has pushed it a bit too far. 

When I searched for SES NY, I wanted to double check the dates of a search engine conference and not have Google show me businessed in NY that match the word SES.  Of course it is easier to complain and point out I things that are broken.  It is much harder to figure out a solution. 

I do not see an easy fix for this.  You can create a list of keywords that will trigger the local map and its matches to appear on the search results.  But this will surely miss good keywords and thus underserve some users who are looking for local answers.  If you keep the system as is you frustrate some users who are NOT looking for local answers.  I guess my suggestion would be to leave the system as is and overserve the local answers and collect usage data.  Once you have enough data go back and turn off the keywords where the local map and business matches had a low CTR.  That would be an efficent way to determine what are search terms that people want the local map and when they do not.

Until Google fixes this we can all have a fun time and take screen captures of funny/frustrating Google serps. Here are some of my current favorite search results with Google providing helpful local data:

• drug dealers ny
• strippers ny
• homeless ny