• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 17, 2024

Google plans to slightly change online search results to give comparison sites more prominence.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Google outlined efforts to comply with new European Union (EU) tech rules that could affect revenue for some companies. The changes mandated by the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) must take effect by March 7.

Google must treat rival services and products the same as it treats its own when ranking them in search results.

Last year the EU enacted the DMA, which applies to companies such as search engines who have been designated as “Gatekeepers.” These rules come into force in March, but users of Google Search in Europe will begin to see the changes in the coming weeks.

Search, for example, may look and feel different.

When someone searching for hotel, or something to buy, Google often serves information to help find the product adding images and prices as part of our results. This can become as part of a result for one business like a hotel or restaurant, or sometimes it can be a featured group of relevant results.

In the coming weeks in Europe, Google will introduce dedicated units that include a group of links to comparison sites from across the web, and query shortcuts at the top of the search page to help people refine their search. this includes focusing results just on comparison sites.

For categories like hotels, Google will start testing a dedicated space for comparison sites and direct suppliers to show more detailed individual results including images, star ratings and more. These changes will require the removal of some features from the search page, such as the Google Flights unit.

Choice screens and data portability are two other changes Google will make.

To meet new requirements around data and moving it to a third-party apps or services, Google will soon test a Data Portability API for developers.

Google offers the ability to download or transfer a copy of the personal or business data from more than 80 Google products, and will continue to make investments in Google Takeout, the Data Transfer Initiative.

Android phone owners to easily switch their default search engine or browser and users of Google services and products to move their data to a third-party app or service.