Two weeks after it began testing a Digital Markets Act (DMA)-induced change to how hotel-related Search works in the EU, Google reports that it delivered predictable results: The proposed changes make Google Search worse for just about everyone.

"We've worked to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA)," Google's Oliver Bethell explains. "Many stakeholders have been satisfied with our updates, but a handful of intermediary comparison sites are calling for even more extreme changes that would meaningfully degrade helpful features for users. While we hope it does not come to this, we've been testing the removal of hotel features from Google Search in Europe to understand how this would affect users and websites."

According to Google, those tests confirm that the modified Search experience made users "measurably less satisfied" with the results while lowering traffic to the hotels that were impacted by about 10 percent. Meanwhile, traffic to the EU-based intermediary sites that were calling for this change was "largely flat."

"The results of this test show that this would be a lose-lose situation for both users and European businesses," Bethell adds. "We look forward to discussing these findings with the European Commission and working to find a more balanced solution."