Wednesday 15/October/2025 – 07:30 PM
Google is facing increasing pressure from the European Union over what has been described as monopolistic practices in search results, as the company makes radical changes to the mechanism for displaying search results to avoid a potential multi-billion-dollar fine under European digital markets law.
Google adjusts its algorithms for search results
According to what was published by the British newspaper Daily Mail, Google has proposed making adjustments to the search algorithm so that it gives specialized services companies (VSS), such as independent travel and hotel reservations sites such as Expedia and “Hotels”, the opportunity to display their results in dedicated boxes within the search page, in addition to Google services itself such as Google Flights and Google Hotels.
The company said in its proposal that each specialized service will receive an independent box within the search results that will be displayed based on objective and non-discriminatory criteria, stressing that results coming from airlines or car rental companies will also appear in separate boxes above or below the designated box according to the relevance of the results to the user’s inquiry.
This development comes after European regulators in March 2025 accused Google of exploiting the dominance of the search engine and the Play Store to promote its own services and prevent developers from providing alternative ways for users to access their applications or purchase services outside the company’s platforms.
This move is an attempt by Google to avoid harsh penalties similar to those faced by Apple, which was forced to open its system to third-party app stores in response to the Digital Markets Law.
