Google has decided to run a short experiment in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia which will see some travel features removed to appease the European Commission and travel comparison websites. The EU is trying to level the playing field through its new Digital Markets Act.
Over the last year, Google says it has made many changes to comply with the DMA including redesigns and the removal of certain features. It says this has benefited comparison websites but some airlines, hotel operators, and small retailers have suffered with free direct booking clicks down as much as 30%.
Unhappy, comparison websites are still complaining so Google has proposed the following changes:
- 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.
- Other new formats that allow comparison sites and suppliers to show more information about what is on their websites, like prices and pictures.
- New ad units for comparison sites.
According to Google, many stakeholders are happy with the changes so far but some are still asking for more - even a complete ban on anything more sophisticated than a simple blue link to a website. Google says this would prevent it from showing useful information like prices and ratings.
To help it understand how this would impact the user experience and traffic to websites, it"s running a short test where it"ll remove free hotel features from Google Search in Germany, Belgium, and Estonia. The removed features include the map that shows where hotels are and the hotel results underneath it. Instead, Google will just show a list of individual links to websites without any additional features.
The search giant is making the decision reluctantly and hopes to achieve a solution where it complies with the law while continuing to provide European users and businesses with access to helpful features.
Source: Google