Google has introduced a series of changes to its search result formats in recent months, following conflicting demands from price-comparison sites, hotels, airlines, and small retailers, with the latest updates announced last month.
The latest updates, announced last month, aim to balance the competing demands for fair visibility and improved user experience, according to Reuters.
Alphabet’s proposed changes to Google’s search results, is designed to comply with EU tech legislation, have been welcomed by the lobbying group Airlines which includes Air France-KLM and Lufthansa for Europe.
Google is working to comply with the Digital Markets Act), which bans it from prioritizing its own products and services on its platform. Failure to comply could result in fines up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
“In the spirit of finding a DMA-compliant solution in a timely fashion, the airline industry has shown it is willing to compromise,” Airlines for Europe said in a letter to the European Commission dated Dec. 20.
The airline group supported the horizontal layout with equally sized boxes for airlines and comparison sites in search results, as well as using the color blue to differentiate them.
However, it argued that the prices shown in the graphics should match those in the boxes.
The group also raised concerns about Google’s proposal to display only indicative dates, rather than specific booking dates, for flight bookings.
“Characteristics such as dates are an integral part of the general search process of consumers looking for air travel and the switch to a purely indicative date will downgrade their experience significantly,” the group stated.
Google has warned that it may revert to the old format of 10 blue links in search results, which it used previously, if rivals like airlines and price comparison sites can’t agree on its proposals to comply with the DMA.
