• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 25, 2015

A code glitch in one of Google's algorithms pushed search results from Yelp, TripAdvisor and other point of interest (POI) queries nearly to the bottom of the page.

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman noticed the glitch last weekend when typing in "yelp Ozumo," while searching for a sushi bar on a mobile device. With the word "yelp" in the query, the results should show the site's results before Google's, but they did not. In fact, many queries related to POIs fell to the bottom of the query page or onto the next page.

Yelp shared internal research showing that around one-third of navigational searches on Google for “Yelp” and a random accompanying term were directed away from Yelp, reports Recode. Foursquare and ZocDoc saw more than a fifth of their traffic diverge, and TripAdvisor saw 50.54% misdirected mobile visits, the media site reports, citing Yelp data.

Stephen Kaufer, CEO of TripAdvisor, noticed a similar issue with a search for "tripadvisor hilton." In a Twitter tweet he wrote "Gimme a break, @google. Search for "tripadvisor hilton" puts the tripadvisor link so far down you can't see it."

Others took to Twitter showing their distaste for the glitch. Ian Chan, director of engineering at BranchMetrics, tweeted: "I dislike the 'it's a bug' excuse for such a high profile heated topic, from a search company. It's disingenuous."

And in another -- "Well that's one way of attempting to avoid an Antitrust lawsuit @Google, blame your Software Engineers," Chan tweeted.

The complaints from Yelp and TripAdvisor stem from their involvement in a European Union antitrust case, claiming Google often prefers results from its own services to those from other companies specializing in POIs, restaurants, hotels.