I didn’t take a stance last night when writing about the new Google Maps display in Google’s regular SERPs, aside from questioning if it will ultimately increase use of Google Maps as a local search tool.

Have no fear, WebmasterWorld has a thread about the new display, and the responses are overwhelmingly against it:

Now half the results page is either filled with sponsor adds or a map and local businesses, many of which don’t even have web sites, but are only listed because they are in the yellow pages.

Watch phony reviews and ratings targeted at Google local become the next wave of competitor sabotage.

…even if you’re #1 in the organic results, you are effectively the #18 link on the page…

Well, there are a couple legitimate issues raised in the thread, namely the major push-down of the regular SERPs. As I mentioned last night, this display takes up a huge chunk of space.

On the other hand, there are also a few ignorant comments in the thread, but I’ll leave you to figure out which ones those are. Ignorant or intelligent, it’s interesting to read the reactions from a slightly more general populace of web users who are not necessarily big on local search.

Technorati Tags: local search, google maps