Brussels wanted more competition, but now we got a results page we barely recognize.
The organic shopping shelf just got repossessed. Google dropped free product listings across the EEA, with “popular products” carousels falling 90-100% in Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands in two days.
That space now belongs to comparison shopping services. Sell into the EEA, and you either sign up with one of those partners or pay for placement.
So we got another one of those intent vs reality mismatches with regulation. Can’t say we’re thrilled.
Local got split down the middle too. Google added local business queries to two new units.
First, an aggregator unit for approved directories, plus a supplier unit for the businesses themselves.
Businesses send Google nothing extra to appear. The catch? That supplier unit only shows once an aggregator triggers.
Discover is auditioning a middleman. The new “Dive deeper” test sends readers to an AI topic overview with community reaction instead of your article.
So, yeah, say goodbye to another click surface if Google likes what it sees during the test period.
And a quick housekeeping note for merchants: Google now requires adult-oriented products to be labelled in Merchant Center feeds or with hasAdultConsideration markup. Organic rankings are unaffected.
Not the kind of start of the week we hope for from Google.
