Google has provided an update on changes it has made to comply with the Digital Markets Act in Europe.
In a blog post the company said it has made more than 20 modifications to Google Search including the “introduction of dedicated units and formats to boost the prominence of comparison sites for free in categories like flights, hotels and shopping.”
Google also said that despite its removal of certain features from search results pages, for example features that show flight information, comparison sites have asked for more.
“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: it's now harder for airlines, hotel operators, and small retailers to reach customers. They have reported that free direct booking clicks are down as much as 30% since we implemented our original changes.”
A recent article from Pablo Delgado of Mirai revealed the extent to which changes were affecting online travel players in Europe.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
The search giant said it has now come up with further changes to European search results such as allowing users to choose between results that take them to comparison sites and results that direct them to supplier websites for flights and hotels.
In addition, new formats enabling comparison sites and suppliers to show more information about what is on their websites has been introduced.
Google also said some sites want to see nothing more than a blue link to websites and that it plans to test how this might impact users and traffic. The short trial began yesterday in Germany, Belgium and Estonia and removes free hotel features, including the map and hotels results under the map, from Google Search.
Google-parent Alpha was designated a gatekeeper under the DMA back in July 2023. The move came at a time when the company was under fire for breaching antitrust regulations in Europe.
The company was also accused of using a dominant position in the United States in 2020, which was held up earlier this year when a judge ruled the company had used its market power to create a monopoly in online search. And, last week the U.S. Department of Justice argued that company should divest its Chrome browser to remove the monopoly. A final ruling is expected some time next year.