Locally Type found a mistake in a Google search result, showing a Yahoo Maps URL but with a plus box that reveals a Google Map. Here’s the result that lead to the post: Needham, MA 02494. The actual Yahoo Map is a link down on the page.

Google’s Matt Cutts responded to the post in comments:

Huh. Looks like we indexed a Yahoo search results page for maps. I’m surprised Yahoo doesn’t exclude that url in robots.txt, but I’ll pass on the report. Thanks!

Google previously put links to Yahoo and MapQuest (as well as its own maps) at the top of pages that generated maps, but in January of this year stopped that practice, saying that the new Google Maps OneBox (now replaced by Universal Search) offered a better overall experience.

Just for fun, I plugged the “Needham, MA 02494″ query into the other major engines to see what would happen:

AOL (the problem isn’t reproduced, despite using the same Google search results):

Ask:

Microsoft/Windows Live

Yahoo (nice Shortcut here)

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling