arinick - 6:28 pm on Aug 17, 2005 (gmt 0)

This is a great step toward what local search should and will inevitably, eventually become. But, while I do believe that Yahoo has the best strategy for incorporating the social component into local search, and clearly the best opportunity to provide a truly useful local search experience-- the results I am seeing today are not very high quality.

In fact, I believe I have noticed a significant decline in quality of results as a result of some changes that appear to have been coupled with this release. It appears to me that the search element of the algorithm has become more of a factor, particularly focused on the presence of keywords in the business name (headline). The results don't seem to be paying as much regard to user rating or distance as they recently were. That's good, of course, as other factors should be more important-- but, I'd still like to see the closest, best reviewed business in the appropriate category rise to the top.

There is a new "User Recommended" feature on each page, and in several occurances I have seen businesses that are farther and with fewer positive review occupying this prime spot. How do I get this spot?