Google proposing adjustments to its search engine to comply with DMA

Google has proposed several modifications to Google Search to accommodate competing search engine services and websites that offer price comparisons.

Over the past few years, the company has made more than 20 adjustments to Google Search, including the introduction of dedicated units and formats to boost the presence of comparison sites for categories such as flights, hotels and shopping.

Furthermore, Google removed several useful features from the search engine result page and reduced functionality for some of its clickable maps.

“While many of these changes have benefited large online travel aggregators and comparison sites, there’s a different set of businesses that are unfortunately losing traffic as a result,” Google says in a blog post.

According to the company, because of these changes it’s harder for airlines, hotel operators and small businesses to reach customers.

Therefore, to counter the negative effects of these adjustments, the company is proposing several more changes.

For starters, Google wants to expand formatted units to either take users to comparison sites, or take them directly to supplier websites.

Secondly, Google wants to implement new formats that allow comparison sites and suppliers to show more information about what’s on their website, such as prices, pictures and reviews.

Lastly, Google wishes to introduce new ad units for comparison sites.

Before implementing these suggested changes, Google will run a short test with its search engine in Germany, Belgium and Estonia.

A number of features will be removed during the test, including the map that shows where hotels are located and hotel results beneath it. Instead, Google Search will show a list of individual links to websites without any additional features, similar to Google’s ‘ten blue links’ format from years ago. Once the results are in, the search engine page results will return to normal.

Google states it’s reluctant to take this step, but is also committed to balancing difficult trade-offs that the Digital Markets Act (DMA) involves.

“We still hope to be able to reach a solution that complies with the law and continues to provide European users and businesses with access to helpful technology,” Head of Google’s Legal Department Oliver Bethell concludes his blog post.