Google has said that it is going to tweak its search results in Europe as smaller competitors have raised complaints about cut traffic to their web sites. This is after Alphabet, the parent firm of Google made some changes that have ignited controversy from competitors. The problem is chickenized by ongoing inquiries from EU authorities, who are investigating if Google violates European tech rules.
Google to Revamp Search Results in Europe Amid Rival Concerns
The changes are being undertaken in the wake of the EU Digital Markets Act that bars Google from promoting its services on the portal. The new law enacted last year is aimed at regulating the market and preventing some large-scale platforms for unfair competition.
Since the DMA was put in place Google has had to contend with a range of expectations of different stakeholders including price comparison sites, small businesses and the large industries like airlines and hotels. These groups have been sanctioned to state that they have seen their web traffic reduced by a third for some of them as many of them reported up to 30% reduction in the number of direct booking clicks as a result of the new-google search algorithm.
To that end Google has made some further suggestions that it believes will adequately address issues of this nature across Europe. Speaking during the launch, the Google’s legal director Oliver Bethell stated that the company remained focused to operate in adherence to the DMA while serving the needs of its users and partners within the region.
The move reaches an important level for Google as an organization develops relevant strategies to address the changing regulatory environment in Europe. Seeing how EU takes digital market fairness very seriously, such changes are deservedly becoming a kind of precedent for more tech giants showing how the latter are able to adapt to the emerging regulations without giving up market dominance.
Google Rolls Out New Search Features in Europe to Comply with DMA
As part of the implementation of the European Union Digital Markets Act Google has made the following changes to its search results. These changes embrace introduction of rather broad and equally designed units whereby users are able to easily switch between third party comparison sites and supplier websites. In addition new ads formats will allow competitors to show their prices and images right in the relevance section.
Google’s legal director Oliver Bethell stressed that the proposed changes will take the middle ground to meet the difficult requirement of DMA. Transformations have to meet different needs of business stakeholders, consumers, and regulators while at the same time integrating Google into the EU competition law.
Unsurprisingly, one of the most contentious elements of the proposal are the changes to the stipulation that requires the map of hotel locations to be shown in the search results to users from Germany, Belgium and Estonia. As part of a user preference experiment, Google will go back to a previous more basic interface reminiscent of the “ten blue link” interface before it added extra services such as hotel search and maps.
Google categorically refused the removal of helpful features; Bethell then conceded that this action would not serve any consumer or businesses in Europe. However, the company is pressing on with the test as part of complying with the DMA demands, as well as assessing users’ response to the minimalist layout.
The European Commission is at the moment considering the changes Google has proposed in a bid to determine if they address the demands of the DMA. In the event the company violated the regulations, it was liable to pay fines of up to 10% of its turnover for the current fiscal year across the globe. The proposal has been rejected for example by British price comparison site Kelkoo, which has been one of the harshest critics of Google.
Critics Slam Google’s Search Adjustments, Claiming Unfair Practices"
Opponents of recent Google’s proposed modifications to search results in Europe states that Google modifications are far from permanently solving the problem of Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs) favoring Google’s CSS. Richard Stables, Chief Executive Officer of Kelkoo, said he was disappointed because rivals continue to have restricted visibility and are put in a position where they have no choice but to transact with Google as opposed to completing with it in the marketplace.
The German Hotel Association voiced that Google’s decision to go back to the “blue links’ format would only mean a worsening of the search outcome or result visibility for consumers. The association pointed out that this change would be detrimental to hotels, especially independent establishments and owners, proprietor and small enterprises because they cannot compete with the massive online marketplaces.
The association also said that lowering attractiveness of hotels on the search results page will make them more dependent on OTAs – sites that typically require high commission rates. It claims this could adversely affect the operational and future viability of SME hotel operations who are finding it increasingly challenging to make reasonable returns.
Amadeus, Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and other members of eu travel tech lobbying group have accused Google of not doing enough to address their complaints. The group has urged the European Commission to launch cases for infringement of the DMA and that Google has not come up with proper solutions to the issues raised by different stakeholders.
oeu travel tech going further in its statement also pointed out that through recommendations like the one above Google is withdrawing from finding solutions that would be more beneficial for consumers, competitors and Searchors. The group argues that to this extent, Google has not been diligent in search for more effective solutions to continued issues and maintaining dominant market position that disadvantage the relatively small players.
