Google is stripping several travel-search features from results shown to users in the European Union to avoid further regulatory fines stripping various search features.
The revised results page will present two distinct units for flight, hotel and restaurant queries, one for third-party aggregators and booking sites, and a separately unit for direct suppliers.
And the supplier unit will no longer let users filter by travel dates, check live pricing or use descriptive tags such as “budget” or “boutique” directly in results.
Compliance
The company said in an announcement the changes are intended to comply with escalating EU enforcement and to reduce the risk of further penalties for favouring its own services revamps Europe search results.
Google has also removed a distinct vacation rentals unit from the European search-results page while still allowing vacation-rental data to appear elsewhere such as Maps and google.com/hotels.
Brussels pressure has driven the move and the cuts will touch Google’s generative features too, with updates applying to its AI Overviews and AI Mode, a sign Europe’s Digital Markets Act enforcement is reshaping product design for one of search’s biggest incumbents €890 million.
