Another Google Local Search Bug
Today at work I was setting up a Local Business Center account in Google and discovered yet another bug in their system.
As some of you have noticed recently, Google started forcing you to select at least one category from their suggested category drop down in order to move on to the next step of the local business center creation and verification process.
Since this listing was for a Laser Eye Surgery office I chose to select the LASIK Surgeon as suggested by Google’s drop down box as seen here
This example is a quick one I tested tonight with out much information but you can see clearly the auto suggestion is LASIK Surgeon all capitalized. The term LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is often capitalized because that is proper name and accepted spelling for this procedure.
Now here is where the bug comes in. Google doesn’t allow excessive capitalization in their listings in an effort to help prevent spam and to make for an equal playing field for all local business listings as seen here
Just for good measure I even attempted to spell LASIK Surgeon in all lower case just to test this out but as you can see, Google just wont accept it as I can only imagine because of the capitalized version in their auto suggestion.
Apparently there doesn’t seem to be a way around this so unfortunately as for my clients listing I had to just go with a generic eye surgery listing as that was the only one that seemed to go through.
I havent tested this on any other categories but if anyone else has had a similar experience I’d like to know about it.
