Abstract:
Google on Tuesday significantly adjusted its online search results in Europe to satisfy EU antitrust regulators, Reuters reported.
Google said the move would degrade user experience and drive up costs for European businesses. A Google executive told Reuters the changes marked the largest downgrade in the company's 29-year search history.
Google said that the EU proposed these adjustments to provide companies with a fairer environment in advertising competition, but in fact, these adjustments are more beneficial to price comparison websites, also known as vertical search services (VSS). This type of website involves industries such as hotels, airlines and restaurants, such as Expedia and Booking.com. These sites will be given higher priority in search results, while businesses that appear only as website links, phone numbers, and addresses will be ranked lower.
In July this year, Google was fined 460 million euros (approximately $534 million) for violating the EU's Digital Markets Act, which is designed to restrict the power of large technology companies, by favoring its own services in search results in areas such as shopping, hotels, transportation and sports. The European Commission requires Google to comply with the Digital Markets Act within 60 days or face regular fines of up to 5% of its total global turnover.
The adjusted Google search results will highlight a dedicated vertical search engine (for the i-hotel restaurant industry) at the top of the page, followed by two other search results with less details, and further down there will be a horizontal information bar for related companies such as hotels, airlines and restaurants, but key features such as real-time prices will be cancelled. The specific ranking will be determined by Google's algorithm.
Nick Fox, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, said in a statement to Reuters: "To comply with the requirements of the Digital Markets Act, we are making significant adjustments to our search services in Europe."
“These adjustments will degrade the experience for European users, enhance the status of online intermediary platforms at the expense of local businesses, and remove some practical features that people rely on every day. Users outside the EU will not be affected by these adjustments.” He said.
Google said that previous adjustments to comply with the Digital Markets Act resulted in a 30% drop in free direct booking traffic for European businesses,
And the latest adjustments are expected to hit them further. The company said it had tested the changes on millions of users across Europe, and the results showed high levels of user dissatisfaction because they had to re-enter search terms to find the information they wanted.In the past two decades, the cumulative antitrust fines Google has suffered in the EU have reached 10.38 billion euros. The EU fines prompted criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to launch an investigation into the EU's "robbing" of U.S. companies.
Comments