The European Commission has ordered Google to share its search data with rival search engines and AI chatbots from January 2027, and open Android to rival AI assistants from July 2027, under the Digital Markets Act. The data that made Google Search untouchable is being prised open, a reason for marketers to widen beyond a single search engine.
For two decades the strength of Google Search was the data no one else could touch. That is the thing being prised open.
The European Commission has ordered Google to hand its search data to competitors. Under a ruling made on 16 July, Google must start sharing the data behind its search engine with rival search services and AI chatbots from January 2027, and open Android to rival AI assistants from July 2027.
The order sits under the EU's Digital Markets Act, which treats Google as a gatekeeper and forces it to open to competition. Qualifying AI chatbots, the likes of OpenAI and Microsoft, can request the same search data Google uses to improve its own products, subject to privacy safeguards. On Android, users will be able to launch a rival assistant by voice and hand it tasks like booking a taxi or finding a store, the sort of access only Gemini has today. The penalty for ignoring the DMA runs to 10% of global turnover.
Google is fighting it. The company argues the measures introduce risks to user privacy, device security and national security.
Why it matters
This is Europe, not Australia, so it does not bind Google here. It matters anyway. Search quality has always been a data game, and the businesses that could not match Google's index could not compete. If rivals and AI assistants get access to that data, the answers people see could start coming from somewhere other than Google. For Australian marketers who have built an entire organic strategy around one search engine, that is a reason to widen the base now.
Google must begin sharing its search data with rivals and AI chatbots from January 2027 under the EU's Digital Markets Act. Source: Search Engine Land.
What to do about it
Stop treating Google as the only front door. If the answer layer fragments across assistants, you want to be visible in more than one.
Get your structured data and product feeds in order. The cleaner your content and product data, the easier it is for any engine to pull you into an answer.
Watch what the Australian regulator does next. Australia has looked hard at Google before, and rulings like this set precedent.
Do not wait for the change to land. Building presence across search and assistants takes time you do not get back.
The data that made Google untouchable is being handed to its rivals. The businesses that spread their bets now will not care who wins.