Google is testing a new design for search results for flights, trains, hotels, restaurants and groceries in the EU, which was hoped to help smaller businesses get more traffic. However, review site Yelp says the changes have had the exact opposite effect.
According to Yelp's research, the new design delivers results by placing data from Google Maps at the top of the page, below the search bar, and at the bottom, a new widget with images and links to websites like Yelp. The experiments showed that nearly 73% of about 500 people during that time clicked on results that left them in the Google ecosystem—up from 55% before the design update and tests with a smaller group of 250 people.
In another design variation, which placed a window with review websites at the top, only 44% of people stayed with Google, with the rest choosing an alternative. Yelp has already appealed to EU regulators with a proposal to adhere to the second option – to obtain “fair results.”
For violating EU antitrust laws (now called the toughest in the world), companies can be required to pay a fine of 10% of annual sales.
Google spokesman Rory O'Donoghue, meanwhile, says more than 20 changes made to the search engine in response to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) instead provide more opportunities for services like Yelp to show up in results.
“Assuming otherwise is simply wrong,” he says.
According to O'Donoghue, Google's testing of different designs showed that clicks to review sites actually increased – all at the cost of individual airlines and restaurants seeing a drop in visits.
Other Google divisions affected by the law, such as Android, Chrome and Maps, as well as other companies such as Apple, Meta and Amazon, have not yet made their full compliance plans public. But a coalition of thousands of smaller companies, including encryption software maker Proton and Norwegian media company Schibsted, argue that those exposed so far do not actually comply with DMA requirements.
Source: Ars Technica
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