This is probably some glich (maybe) but for some quick entertainment, go to a Google map of Albany, GA here - http://goo.gl/maps/pteZk
Albany is home to a MillerCoors brewery which is marked on the upper left side of the map.
Now type “brewery” into the search bar and see what it brings up.
I don’t know if it’s a glitch, but that’s just the way Google Maps processes searches. If you haven’t set a location it just defaults to a global search, no matter where the map is focused.
It’s strange that the first result is Deschutes though… Isn’t Google in California? It isn’t the top search either: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=brewery
Cool…a wormhole to the West Coast.
It’s because you’re linking to Albany by lat-lon, I think. If I actually search for Albany, NY and then search for brewery it shows nearby breweries.
This is Albany, GA. And if you search for Albany, GA - then search for brewery it goes to Deschutes. Any other location in the country and this works fine. Also, search for just about anything else around Albany, GA and it works correctly.
Local map search works for every other search I’ve done in any location. This is how I plan my vacations. If you type ‘restaurants’ it shows you restaurants around Albany. ‘IKEA’ and it shows you the nearest IKEA, which is an hour away.
IIRC, Google has a large server farm in eastern OR, not too far from Bend where Deschutes is.
Oh, you’re right. Perhaps Google, like me, didn’t know there was an Albany, GA 
Since Denny mentioned a nearby server farm, I now suspect subversion. :) Though I’ve heard a few other wacky search stories that they claimed where just search algorithm artifacts.
When you’re beyond up to your eyeballs in data like Google is, all sorts of funny things happen when you’re attempting to cross correlate data from widely disparate resources
To use a technical turn of a phrase - google is doing some way fancy shit to churn through petabytes of data that I can’t even begin to fathom. It’s bound to make an oopsie every once in a while. The interesting part to me is how rare it actually is. I suspect their error rate is less than if humans were doing a similar classification and cross linking.
On the positive side of the fence - anyone remember how bad finding stuff on the web was before the google guys jumped in and made everyone up their game?
Also, I’ve been impressed with how fast google is indexing things these days. Sometimes I’ll post something or be involved in something and it’s available via google search within 4 hours. Mind boggingly fast.
That I completely believe.
There’s a small forum I post on where my posts are sometimes indexed within minutes. Amazing stuff.
You meant they are storing everything we write here?!?!?
puts on tin-foil hat
I like playing around with google trends. It is interesting to see
what search volumes and locations and ppl are checking out…here is one for
BEER
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=beer&cmpt=q
Or perhaps …
My favorite - if you haven’t seen Google Flu Trends, you should.
Seriously. Sometimes, Google just blows my mind.
Between the ridiculous amount of data they somehow organize for all of us - to their many, many services. Just a couple days ago, myself and 7 other friends ranging from Canada, to Memphis, to KC, to California, to Mississippi were doing a group video conference, some of us from our smart phones. Trying to think of the software/hardware that is behind that makes my head hurt.
That’s good. Now compare that to CRAFT Beer: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=craft%20beer&cmpt=q