Report from Reuters
In Brief – Google is rolling out changes to its general search engine result page in Europe that would give greater visibility to rival “vertical search” services. It is a market test of a plan addressing the preliminary determination of the European Commission that Google breached the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by favoring its own vertical services in searches related to hotels, flights and restaurants. Since receiving the charges last March, Google has proposed several remedies, but vertical search rivals repeatedly argued that they did not go far enough, while major direct advertisers such as hotel chains and airlines argued that their own online listings should get better placement in search. The latest plan would display both Google’s offerings and competing vertical search services by default, with top-ranked specialized search engines shown prominently. Listings for hotels, airlines, restaurants and transport providers using real-time data feeds would appear either above or below those rival links. The rollout will begin across Europe with lodging searches and later expand to flights and other services.
Context – The “fairness” of Google search has been a morass plaguing the Internet ecosystem for more than 20 years. Every algorithm change yields winners and losers. The fight over fair treatment for vertical search competitors stretches back to the Google Shopping Case initiated in 2010. The DMA regulators have spent the past year trying to balance the interests of vertical search businesses and direct services providers in search results. In the meantime, complaints about how Google is integrating AI into search have moved to the fore. Publishers have raised AI objections with the EU regulators overseeing both the DMA and the Digital Services Act. The impact of AI on search was also key to US District Judge Amit Mehta’s decision last year to limit his remedies order regarding Google’s search monopoly, seeing chatbot companies as likely major search competitors. Google’s search engine has also been designated for regulation under the UK’s version of the DMA, including questions related to Google’s AI-enabled services.