Google Search May Become Less Useful for Travel Planning, Thanks to DMA

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What you need to know

• The European Union’s Digital Markets Act required Google to change or remove certain travel planning features in Google Search.

• Price comparison sites are asking for more and Google is proposing new changes to its DMA compliance for travel planning in search.

• As part of these changes, Google will test the complete removal of advanced hotel booking features in Germany, Belgium and Estonia for a limited time.

Google is a useful resource for travel planning, with features intended to help users compare prices and book directly with airlines, hotels, and more. However, this may change for users in the European Union. Google has made significant changes to its offerings in the region to comply with Digital Markets Act. Price comparison sites still aren’t happy and are pleading for Google search to go back to basics, at least when it comes to travel.

In the past, the company says it has improved comparison site rankings for free in certain categories, including flights and hotels. It also removed features from its travel maps and stopped showing flight information. The company says these measures were taken to comply with the DMA and benefited travel aggregators and comparison sites. During this time he argued that the changes have had a negative impact on small businesses.

To meet the demands of price comparison sites and travel aggregators, Google is proposing the following changes, as outlined in a blog post:

• Expanded, 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 searching for products, restaurants, flights or hotels.

• Other new formats allow comparison sites and suppliers to display more information about what’s on their websites, such as prices and images.

• New ad units for comparison sites.

That may still not be enough, as Google says some sites are calling for “a complete ban on anything more sophisticated than a simple blue link to a website.” If passed, it would mark a step change for Google Search’s travel offerings in the EU. To see what this would look like, we are removing these advanced features entirely in a few countries. This is similar to a test from earlier this month, where Google removed content from news publishers in the EU to test its impact on research.

Users in Germany, Belgium and Estonia stopped seeing free hotel features in Google Search on November 25 and will not benefit from them for the duration of this “short, temporary test.” The test removes the map, hotel results organized under the map, hotel property information, and other Google search information. Some features will be available if a user searches directly for a hotel, rather than a vague query like “hotels in Germany.”

It’s unclear what long-term changes the EU might require Google to make in order to remain compliant with the DMA. However, if price comparison sites have their way, Google may have to go back to basics – and that may not be such a good thing for the average user.