Before I start my rant I'd like to state that for some businesses - those that have been lucky enough not to have experienced my points below - Google Local is a great product. But for the rest of us it is a long way from being perfect.
For businesses Google Local is a tool which can't be ignored, but I can't help but think that it not ready for mainstream use (in the UK anyway). I'm not going to throw figures about, but as you would expect, the number of people searching for local services and companies is massive.
Google know this and have tried to develop a product to help its searchers find what they are looking for locally, but it is just not up to Google's usual standard. Nearly every part fails in some way.
Anyone can claim a listing
If you find your business within the Google Local system you can claim it. Once you have claimed it you then have to verify that the business is yours. You verify by phone, SMS or post.
The problem with this is process is you don't have to be too clever to work out how to game the system and start claiming other businesses. Once this has happened, the process of getting it back is a nightmare. Whilst you're banging your head against the wall, your website traffic is going to an affiliate website or even worse, to one of your competitors.
Please go and claim your Local Business listing now if you haven't already!
Slow to update listings
Once you have added or amended your business information it can take up to four weeks for the information to be updated. This is crazy...why, if the system is completely automated, do we have to wait up to four weeks? I could live with 24 hours, but when we've made an effort to update our listing at the very least we should be rewarded with seeing the update!
No support
The system seems to be completely unsupported, especially outside of the US. I can fully appreciate the manpower required to deal with this on a global scale, but surely you can't release a product that you have no intention of supporting. To give them some credit there is a forum, but this is mainly policed by helpful individuals. You do occasionally get a Google representative answering a question but there's no guarantee your post will even be looked at.
No way to report a problem
I know I have mentioned the lack of support but at the very least businesses should have the ability to report a problem; especially if it is damaging their business.
Update: You can now report a problem - go to http://maps.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=open_bug - just don't expect a reply, but maybe if enough people report their issues, something will get done about them!
Incomplete and incorrect data
To get businesses onto the system, Google gathered much of its data from many trusted sources. For example in the UK, Thompson Local and Touch Local look to be two of the providers. It also looks like they have used other methods, which shouldn't be that trusted!
Of course it makes sense that by utilising existing sources they were able to build the system very fast, but in doing so, there are millions (I have tried not to exaggerate) of unclaimed, incomplete and incorrect business listings.
Merged listings
Merged listings can be very damaging to your business and can cause months of work to sort out. Somehow Google manages to merge business data together; there isn't normally an instantly visible reason, other than them being too clever for their own good! The data can come be a merger of two or more businesses, there is no set pattern that we can see. It is never a complete merge, normally the telephone number or website address.
The worst case I have seen so far is two florists next door to each other, both with the same phone number!
No way to add/remove reviews or related sites
I understand the system is about transparency, but the number of times I have seen a listing with a completely unrelated review is ridiculous. One of the more common issues is where someone buys an old domain, only to find they have hundreds of bad reviews linked with their listing.
How difficult is it to give business the ability to remove or answer reviews on related sites?
Multiple listings
This is no doubt to do with data gathering and businesses adding themselves and not claiming existing listings, but the number of duplicated listings is stupid. If businesses could report problems then I am sure the problem would quickly go away. The process of cleaning up duplicates needs to be well thought out - hmmm...no, not community edits!
Poor status messages within the dashboard
The dashboard is quite simple to use. Updating and adding listings isn't hard work but if your listing isn't accepted for some reason it is never clear why. It normally takes hours of adding, removing and verifying sites, trying different listing combinations until you crack it.
Most businesses do not have the patience or the know-how to be playing these games. Please just tell your customers what's gone wrong! Google, if you're interested I could recommend a good book called 'Don't make me think' by Steve Krug.
Why do I need to use the word 'in'?
This one isn't really a major problem, but it just annoys me! Why on some searches do I have to include the word 'in' and on others I don't? For example - 'business service in location/region' rather than 'business service location/region'.
If you are a hardcore Googler like me, you will have been conditioned to not include these types of words in your searches (we call them stop words).
What does this mean? Other than we are being forced to type more, businesses are losing out on what is clearly a local search.
It's a great tool but needs some refining...
Google Local in the UK has the potential of being a great tool and I would advise everyone to start using it, even if only to protect your business. It just needs better support and businesses should be given more control.