Expedia Becomes A New York City Hotel After Google’s Pigeon Local Update

On July 24, 2014, Google released a major local search algorithm update, we named Pigeon. Google told us the new algorithm will lead to a more useful and relevant experience for searchers seeking local results.

But like with any new algorithm launch, there are always bugs, unexpected outcomes and less relevant results.

A search for [New York Hotels] in Google brings up the local carousel, with hotel options you’d expect, and some you wouldn’t expect.

We have the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and others. But we also have Expedia, the travel search engine, coming up as a hotel you can purchase a stay at for a night or two. Why?

If you looked at Expedia’s Google+ local listing you would have seen it is listed in the travel category. Someone at Google recently changed it to a “Corporate Headquarters” category. This should fix the issue and no longer bring up Expedia in the search results for that query, over time.

Google was made aware of the issue and they acknowledged that this is not the expected outcome from the new local search algorithm. They are indeed working on fixing the results and improving them over time.