Google Proposes More Changes To Europe Search Results As Comparison Sites Insist

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(RTTNews) - Google LLC, affiliated to Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Tuesday said it has proposed more changes to European search results as comparison sites are insisting, after the Digital Markets Act or DMA required substantial changes to the services it can provide in Europe.

The company said that with the additional changes, it is trying to accommodate requests by the comparison sites, while still meeting the goals set by the DMA.

The firm has expanded and equally 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 are searching for products, restaurants, flights or hotels.

The changes also include other new formats that allow comparison sites and suppliers to show more information about what is on their websites, like prices and pictures; as well as new ad units for comparison sites.

Google said it has already made many changes over the past year to comply, including significantly redesigning certain features and completely removing others in Europe.

This includes more than 20 modifications to Google Search, like the introduction of dedicated units and formats to boost the prominence of comparison sites for free in categories like flights, hotels, and shopping, among others.

The company has also removed useful features from the search results page, like features that show flight information, and reduced functionality for some of its clickable maps - changes that have negatively impacted the experience of European users.

"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," Google noted.

Google further said it needs to understand how such changes would impact both the user experience and traffic to websites. To do this, the company will be running a short test to remove the free hotel features from Google Search for users in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia.