Now, if you do a search for web design, web development, or most digital agency like queries, with or without a local qualifier (i.e. web design new york), Google won’t show the local 7 pack. Mike Blumenthal covered this well, but it needs more attention.
In the past, a search for [web design, suffern, ny] or a search for [web design] when Google knows your location, would trigger a 7 pack that looks something like this:
Now, the same search triggers no local pack, just search results, like the old Google results. Here is a picture:
There are two large threads about this at the Google Maps Help thread. In one of those thread, Googler, Linda said on November 11th, “Thanks for your reports. I will look into this issue and get back to you.”
Then Brian B from Google explained on November 18th what is going on. He said:
Back in late October, there was a bug we covered where Google would show a single one box instead of 7 business results. Google fixed this bug in early November, which seemed to trigger a new bug with [web] related local queries.
Google seems to be working on a fix for this bug as well and hopefully it will be resolved shortly.
