Google warns the changes imposed by the EU to search could lead to a reduction in quality and impact search marketing strategies.
Google has warned the changes being rolled out to search to bring it in-line with European Union (EU) antitrust regulation will “degrade user experience” and increase costs for businesses.
The Alphabet-owned company said the changes would result in the largest reduction to the quality of service in the history of the company, Reuters reported.
In order to comply with antitrust rules, the European Commission (EC) ordered Google to redesign its search results for price comparison sites like Booking.com, Trivago, or Kayak.
The EU said measures will even the playing field for competitors.
Google said the changes mean price comparison sites like those listed above will be favoured in search rankings over companies in hospitality such as hotels, airline and restaurants, which are listed with a link to their websites, phone number, and address.
As a result, companies within hospitality and airline industries could suffer with limited audience reach from search.
The changes come after the tech giant was hit with over a €460m fine (roughly £400m) for favouring its own services in search results – particularly with transport, hotels, and shopping – which breaches the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
New search results will now show one specialised search engine at the top of the page, and then two less detailed results below. Below that, a carousel of sites offering flights, restaurants, and hotels (for example), will show.
Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice-president, knowledge and information told Reuters: “To comply with DMA requirements, we’re making significant changes to Search in Europe. These changes degrade the user experience for Europeans — boosting online intermediaries at the expense of local businesses, and removing helpful features people rely on every day.”
For marketers working in the hospitality sector, these changes could result in them having to rethink their search strategies, focusing their efforts on ranking highly within price comparison sites rather than relying on audience reach or search results directly.
Notably, search rankings will still be determined by Google’s own algorithm.
European businesses could also see a significant drop in free, direct booking traffic to European businesses, Google warned – with previous changes leading to a 30% drop in traffic.
The tech giant added the changes, when tested with millions of European users, led to a decline in user satisfaction, often forcing users to retype their queries to find the desired result.
