Google search, via Google Maps, gives some bizarre results for "coffee", as you can see with these three result sets. (And now Blogger is being horrible with layout, yes, I know, Medium or something, but I started this blog a long time ago, switching costs.)
Here the search is just "coffee", so, obviously looking for somewhere to get coffee (perhaps in liquid form). You see Starbucks, which I am not a fan of, and at this zoom level there is one other name that is showing and a few results where the name of the location isn't shown.
I want something without Starbucks (which is the next search), but also note there is nothing showing in the triangle made by those roads there in the middle/left.
So, the same search, with "-starbucks" which should, I have been told, exclude Starbucks. Except it didn't do that -- it removed all results but one. Although I hadn't zoomed in on that previous search, I can tell you that not all the results were Starbucks. We know at least one result, on the left, was for "Pavement Coffeehouse", which is not a Starbucks. This search result is completely incorrect and thus rather useless. Notice there are still no results in the triangle space there in the middle/left.
So maybe you were wondering, "This is Boston, where are the Dunkin' Donuts!" Good question. Google
wasn't showing them, despite Google's description of DD: "Chain known for donuts & coffee". So, right there, AND COFFEE. Yet DD is not a Google Maps result for "coffee", as shown above. (Although the pin shows a fork and knife, not a cup and saucer.)
So, what is going on?
- Google appears to have not associated "coffee" with Dunkin' Donuts, which is wrong.
- Google seems to think that "-starbucks" means "get rid of all results for things Google thinks are like starbucks", which is also just wrong.
In conclusion, you can't use Google Maps to search accurately for coffee.
