New Google Search Experiences Dedicated to Europe
In the wake of their recent update to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google is releasing new details of upcoming changes to search results for the European Economic Area (EEA). Publishers are invited to commit to these changes.
These new experiences will enable users in EEA countries performing searches such as "hotels near me" to notice more visual, entity-centric results.
The main aim, according to Google, is to provide users with relevant, enriched information while enhancing the visibility of the various players in the ecosystem - from aggregators to businesses - in search results.
New enriched carousel results for aggregators and suppliers
An enriched result typically relies on structured data in the markup of a web page to display graphical elements or interactive experiences.
Today, they're sharing more information on a new rich result carousel for travel, local, and shopping queries.
Each tile in these new carousels can display price, rating, and image information for entities on the page. Users can scroll horizontally to see more entities from a given site. If a web page has no structured data markup, then the standard textual result is displayed.
The new format is currently available for travel, local, and shopping queries, with initial tests being carried out in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, and the UK.
New experience with flight queries
In addition to enriched carousel results, aggregator units, and refinement bullets, they are introducing a new experience for flight queries, which includes a new unit for airline websites.
News aggregator units and refinement chips
Google is also introducing dedicated aggregator units that include links to web aggregator sites. The aggregator units make it easy for users to see the best aggregator results for their respective queries.
Users can also click on "More sites" to see additional aggregator sites relevant to their query. Several unit types such as location, job, flight, and product sites (tested first in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, and the UK) are available.
Refinement bullets such as "Location Sites" can help users focus the search page on textual aggregator results. Searchers can activate refinement bullets at the top of the search results page or by clicking on "More sites" on new aggregator units.
Please note that publishers are not required to add any markup to be eligible for aggregator units or refinement bullets.
Find out more and register your interest
If your company is based in the EEA or serves users in the EEA, and you'd like to find out more and express your interest in these new experiences, you can start by filling in the dedicated form (for flight requests, use the flight request interest form).