Google drops telephone numbers from 7 Pack
Posted by Ben Barney on November 5, 2009
It lasted less than a day but the numbers are back on the 7 pack. Official word from Google is that it was a bug. They may have been testing reactions. But the numbers were only gone for less than a day before being turned back on again.
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The usefulness of the local business listings in Googles main SERPs is getting reduced further. First the “Google 10 pack” becomes the “Google 7 pack”, now Google have reduced the information given to the user further by removing the businesses telephone number from the listing, forcing the user to perform a secondary click to get at the call to action.
So why would Google be doing this? Is the 7 pack proving not to be well used by users? I doubt it. One explanation is that the 7 pack is actually too useful, and therefore the revenue from sponsored results is being detrimentally impacted as a result. This would put more context around Google’s testing of Local Listing Ads in the States (see http://bit.ly/1Tj9uK).
Another reason is that Google may not be too happy that someone else is monetizing this inventory. The Skype deal with European Directories, turns any phone number on a web page into a free phone number for a Skype user. (see http://bit.ly/ewN18) .
Whatever the true reason is, Google appears to have sacrificed usability for commercial reasons, which is a sad development.
