Google's search engine has just been hit with the "largest reduction in quality" in its nearly 30-year history

What are the changes?

After Google was hit with a €460 million (over $530 million when directly converted) fine some weeks ago, the European Commission gave the search engine giant 60 days to comply with DMA (Digital Markets Act), the regulation that's (in theory) designed to make digital markets fairer and more contestable.

It's all about how search results in Google appear… and the order they're in. This is what makes a night-and-day kind of difference. As you know, there's no place more secret than Google's page 2. When was the last time you visited page 2?! What matters is the top three spots in the search result list. That is, if you're oldschool enough and you still use a search engine instead of just using your favorite AI agent.

So, the EU wants to give competing comparison and booking services, known as vertical search services (VSS), a fairer chance to appear in Google's results. These include platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia, which compete with Google's own hotel, flight and restaurant search features.

This won't fly, Google says

While Google abides, the company says there's a big problem. And it's such that the changes could actually benefit these large intermediaries more than the smaller businesses they are supposed to help.

With the new system in place, comparison sites could get more prominent positions in Google Search. Meanwhile, individual hotels, airlines and restaurant offers may receive less visibility for their own websites, phone numbers and addresses. This (potentially) means fewer direct customers.

The new outlook

Google says the redesigned results will put one specialized search service at the top, followed by two more with less information. A separate section for hotels, airlines or restaurants will then appear underneath, but some features, including Google's real-time prices, will be removed.