Google's EU Search Changes Will Harm Users, Company Warns

Google has made significant changes to its search results in Europe to comply with a July ruling by the European Commission. The commission fined Google €460 million for giving its own services preferential treatment, and required the company to treat third-party services fairly within 60 days.

The changes have been implemented, but Google warns that they will 'degrade the user experience for Europeans.' In particular, real-time prices will no longer be displayed in search results. The company argues that this move will hurt local businesses and remove helpful features from users.

Google claims that previous changes to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) led to a 30% drop in direct-booking traffic for European businesses. It also cites negative user feedback during tests of the new changes.