Like Apple, Amazon or Microsoft, Google was forced to make changes to its products in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act, the European legislation which governs the digital giants. As a reminder, the objective of this legislation is to guarantee fair and open digital markets, by offering more opportunities to competitors of the tech giants designated as “access controllers”.
Concerning its search engine, Google announced more than 20 changes, including new products for comparison sites. Google says the changes it has made have already benefited large online travel aggregators and comparison sites, while reducing traffic for airlines, hotels and small businesses. However, according to this, comparators are now pushing Google to apply other changes.
In a recent press release, the firm indicates that it is proposing new changes to its search engine, in the EU, to respond to these requests. These new changes include “expanded, similarly formatted units that allow users to choose between results that take them to comparison sites and results that take them directly to supplier websites when they search for products, restaurants, flights or hotels.”
Google will also test a radical change
“While many stakeholders are happy with our changes, a few sites continue to demand more, such as a complete ban on anything more sophisticated than a simple blue link to a website. This would prevent Google from displaying useful information, such as prices and reviews”we also read in the recent publication of the Mountain View firm.
In response to these requests, it will conduct a small test in Germany, Belgium and Estonia, in order to find out what impact this radical change would have on its search engine and on website traffic. During the test, Google will remove features offered to hotels that are at the heart of the debate, such as the map that indicates the location of the establishment. The search engine will only display simple links, like on very old versions of Google. But the firm indicates that it is not in favor of this option, and that the results of its search engine will return to normal at the end of the test.
- To comply with the DMA, Google has made several changes to its search engine
- But the firm indicates that these changes do not satisfy the comparators and, therefore, it proposes new modifications
- Google will also launch a radical test during which it will only display blue links for certain queries
