Google Flights gets aggressive by intercepting airline trademarks

Google’s competitors say that Google Flights, without fanfare, is taking assertive steps and is indeed making market share gains at the expense of competitors. One such move is intercepting consumer searches on Google for a specific airline like “united flights to Chicago” and displaying a Google Flights result at the top — or near the top — of the page instead of delivering a direct, free link to United.com or an online travel agency selling United tickets. So Google is transforming a search for a trademarked term like an airline’s name and turning it into money for Google. There is at least one notable exception to Google’s flight-search practices regarding searches for branded airline terms. A Google search for American Airlines flights does not generate a Google Flights search result but shows direct, organic links to AA.com. <br/>