Google bows to the EU – and renews its search function

Eventful week for Google: On the one hand, the US Internet company is changing the algorithms of its Internet search engine under pressure from the European Union, and on the other hand, the search experience for users is to be made easier with new functions.

In addition, CEO Sundar Pichai prepared the workforce for further job cuts. “The job cuts are not on the scale of last year’s cuts and will not affect all teams,” Pichai announced, according to US technology website The Verge. In January 2023, Google parent company Alphabet unveiled plans to cut 12,000 jobs, or six percent of its global workforce.

The content changes are partly forced, partly voluntary. In the future, comparison sites competing with Google would appear more prominently in the search results, Google announced. These would be displayed in a separate section. For categories such as hotels, there will be a special area to display more detailed individual results with images, star ratings and more, it is said.

The trigger for this adjustment is the stricter regulations of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), which oblige US companies to equate competing services and products with their own in the results of Internet searches. In addition, Google must grant companies access to the data that they generate when using Google services.

There are also changes for users. If you want to search for something on Google on your smartphone, you previously have to type terms into the search engine’s text field or use the voice control. With “Circle to Search”, Google presented a new function this week. Translated, this means “circle to search”. In the future, you will be able to circle certain areas with your finger on technically powerful smartphones in order to search for them directly on Google. This involves, for example, text content or images.

Possible with all Android apps

To activate search, users press and hold the home button or activate the gesture navigation bar. This does not change the actual search function and display of results. Google assures that the new search function will work with all applications from January 31st. If you want, you can also use it to search for things you stumble across on social media. Initially, however, “Circle to Search” is reserved for the Pixel 8 smartphones and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 devices.

info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.

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By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.

info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.

Add the topic to your topics.