http://www.yellowspaces.com/#a=search|p_what=thai%20restaurant|p_pageSize=10|p_where=New%20York%20(NY)|p_whereid=329488|p_latitude=40.7143|p_longitude=-74.006

First four hits are Thai and then there are non-thai alternates that are restaurants.

I think what the problem here is that this is a local search and there is a knee jerk reaction that it is supposed to be a literal search.

Once we look at the concept here of being local, I think that if I’m hungry I may look for Thai restaurants because that’s my literal desire, but I might be more interested in a sub that is a few blocks from my search location than in a restaurant that is my literal request but is 5 miles away. So if an engine tries to give me what I want that is close, but if a sub is a lot closer and it still offers that to me as an alternative because it’s close… that’s pretty good at solving the problem (me being hungry lol).

It’s not Google’s way but what is the point of replicating Google over and over again?

Searched for – Thai Restaurant in New York
First page results include Subway, and a few other restaurants that definitely won’t have Thai on the menu.

On a postive note, the Google ad on the right side of the page for “Single Thai Girls” was somewhat entertaining, although didn’t serve up the restaurant information I was hoping for :)

What’s your thoughts when these local companies launch using phrases like “focused on providing the most relevant and meaningful searches” or “positioned to be #1 in local” or “targeting over a million users per month” when they’ve just barely launched?

It appears many local sites make grandiose claims (especially when contacting non web savvy business owners) and I wondered if you had any thoughts on that.