Experiment aborted

Google: “Blue links like before” harm hotels

In the dispute over the interpretation of the European digital law DMA, Google has prematurely ended an experiment in which the US company had removed a number of direct offers from its hotel search results. The test had shown that the removal of direct booking links demanded by competitors was detrimental to both users and European hotel companies.

"Due to the negative impact we have already seen, we have discontinued the test," according to a blog post by Oliver Bethell, Head of Legal at Google.

"Blue links like ten years ago"
Before the experiment, the hotel search had also shown the hotels directly in a highlighted display alongside links to special search engines and comparison portals such as Booking.com or Check24. During the test, Google only displayed a list of individual links to hotel websites without any additional functions - "similar to our old 'ten blue links' format from years ago".

The highlighted content, which was no longer visible during the two-week test, included an interactive map with hotel listings that showed the prices for an overnight stay at a glance, the so-called free booking links.

Traffic dropped during the test
The experiment of dispensing with the free booking links reduced the number of hotel searches overall. "The biggest drop was recorded by the hotels themselves (more than ten percent), which affected hundreds of thousands of European hotels," the Bethell blog post continues. In contrast, traffic to the brokerage sites remained largely unchanged.

With the test, Google complied with the demands of competitors, at least temporarily in Germany as well as in Belgium and Estonia. They want to prevent travelers from being able to book a hotel directly via Google search results.

Specialist search engines accuse Google of unfair competition
According to the provisions of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), large online platforms are not allowed to give preference to their own offers. Google search is one of the services that the EU Commission has identified as gatekeepers under the DMA. They are subject to regulations that are intended to enable more competition.

Google has been trying for years to provide specific answers directly to users' search queries in addition to a selection of information. This has repeatedly led to criticism from specialist search engines, among others, who have accused the industry giant of unfair competition.