Google gave us the heads-up about this earlier this week, that Google Local
was going to be renamed Google Maps. Now it’s happened. Either URL you use,
https://local.google.com/ or
https://maps.google.com/ comes back with
the Google Maps name.
But wait a minute! Wasn’t Google Maps just renamed Google Local a few months
ago? Yep, back in
October. Google
explains briefly to News.com how they flip-flopped because people kept
calling Google Local "Google Maps."
Hate to say it, but perhaps they should go back to two different sites. Local
results can still be in Google Maps and vice-versa, but separately, they might
be easier to maintain with more targeted front pages for what people probably
expect. For example, compare Yahoo Local
to Yahoo Maps.
Postscript: Google has more on the change on its blog.