Google reports further details on changes as a result of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This EU regulation comes into force on Wednesday in the European Economic Area (EEA) and is intended to curb the market power of particularly large tech companies (gatekeepers). One of the gatekeepers affected is Google. The changes affect the search engine of the same name, Android, data management and data export with regard to numerous Google services, payment systems, the communication of app operators with their users, as well as transparency for advertisers on the one hand and the operators of websites and apps on the other.
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In the last few weeks, Google has been trying out various changes to its search engine. More than 20 changes are now being implemented. These include so-called rich search results, which usually use structured data in the markup of web pages to display graphical elements or interactive content. In the EEA, new rich results ads are coming in the form of carousels for travel, shopping and local topics.
In addition, the search engine in the EEA will receive new aggregator units that provide links to aggregator websites. This concerns websites for locations, portals for comparing flight connections, websites with job advertisements, and product websites. Google builds so-called chips into these aggregator units, which are intended to help refine queries and thus limit search results. Google Flights disappears from search results and is replaced by a new interface for flight queries; The company is placing a new unit underneath that will lead to airline websites.
Side effects
“A number of the new rules introduce difficult trade-offs that will impact people and companies that use our products,” says Oliver Bethell, Google's competition affairs officer. “For example, changes to our search results could drive more traffic “Send traffic to intermediaries and aggregators, and less traffic directly to providers such as hotels, airlines, retailers and restaurants.” In addition, some functions would no longer be available to consumers in the usual way.
These effects are plausible: If Google is to be less often the gatekeeper that decides which offers appear prominently in the search results, other intermediary sites will increasingly have to fill the search results. After all, not all possible offers fit on page 1 of the search results. This change is good for intermediaries, but bad for those companies that have been particularly successful in their search engine optimization (SEO).
Android
On Android devices it is already possible to set the default browser and search engine. Now Android should point out the selection options more frequently with displays. This also affects the Chrome browser on desktop systems and iPhones. In contrast to Apple with its iPhones, Google has already allowed the installation of applications on Android that do not come from the official app store. In addition, both users and device manufacturers can install alternative app stores. According to Bethell, with Android version 14, Google has improved support for alternative app stores and updates distributed through them.
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From Wednesday, Android applications will be allowed to direct their users specifically to websites, also to make offers outside of the Google system (and therefore outside of Google's control). Of course, Google can only implement this for apps that are distributed via Google's App Store Play. The regulations for apps from other stores are issued by the respective store operators.
When it comes to billing for and in Android apps, Google has already relaxed the Play requirement somewhat in recent years. Many apps can point to alternative billing systems or only provide an in-house payment system and exclude Google Play. However, games were excluded; the DMA also enforces choice for gaming apps.
More insight for advertising customers, easier data transfer for users
Google promises new insights for online advertising: Both Google's advertising customers and the operators of those websites and apps that offer their advertising space via Google should receive “some additional data”. heise online asked Google for information about what this actually means. In any case, the data company promises that the additional data will neither affect the privacy of users nor the trade secrets of advertisers.
Google has been allowing users to download their data from Google services for years. However, this data export rarely helped to transfer one's own data treasures to competing or complementary services. A new interface (API) should make this easier this week. Just like the other innovations, this only applies in the EEA.
An entry in Google's help that explains how European users can set which data should (not) be shared between different Google services causes a little confusion. According to the text, this new data protection feature can only be found in the settings of users with an EU Google account. heise online asked Google how this differs for users in the other EEA states Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
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