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Spotted today, Google is testing adding the category to the top of the query when performing searches that trigger a Snack Pack Map result. The test was spotted during searches for localized queries and included a specific category that fits ones from Google Business pages. The top of the map result is a clickable link that brings searchers to a new result featuring only map and local businesses.

On competitive searches, I can easily see this link driving more users to click into the full map search results, negating the organic links below that often feature Yelp, OpenTable, Zomato and other industry-specific directories depending on the query. As Google puts more efforts into their local and map results, they seem to be testing what driving more traffic to local search may impact search quality.

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The category link is shown in blue at the top of the map.
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Found on searches with local intent.
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Close-up of the link.
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Clicking the link brings up a standard local search results page on Google Maps.

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