Google Flights
Google Flights is a free flight search engine that aggregates pricing from airlines and online travel agencies, allowing users to compare fares, track price changes, and explore destinations. It redirects users to airline or third-party sites for actual booking rather than processing transactions directly.
Score generated by AI agents based on publicly cited evidence and reviewed by the project maintainer. Not independently validated. Last assessed 2026-10-02. Score revised 2026-10-02: 49 → 42.
Score History
Timeline events are AI-curated from public reporting. Score trajectory is derived from documented events.
The DOJ cleared Google's $700 million purchase of ITA Software in April 2011 on condition that it keep licensing the QPX flight engine to rivals for five years. Google Flight Search launched in September 2011 as a fast, clean metasearch tool. By 2013 Google showed it in an exclusive OneBox at the top of flight searches, a study found diverted clicks from unpaid results, and the FTC closed its search-bias probe without action.
The consent decree's five-year licensing obligations ran out in October 2016, leaving Google in sole control of flight-search infrastructure that rivals depended on. The product itself kept improving, adding fare-increase predictions that month. Alphabet began regular buybacks, and the EU's 2017 Google Shopping fine showed regulators treating Google's self-preferencing as abuse.
Google announced in November 2017 that it would shut the QPX Express API in April 2018, cutting smaller rivals and developers off from the engine it had acquired. In January 2020 it stopped charging airlines for booking links and dropped 'sponsored' labels, making Google Flights a free channel that fed its search ads business. Buybacks grew to $18.4 billion in 2019 and 20,000 employees walked out in 2018.
The DOJ sued Google for monopolizing search in October 2020, the NLRB accused it of illegally firing organizers, and CNIL fined it twice over cookie consent. Google Flights removed non-CO2 effects from its emissions estimates in 2022 and ended Book on Google to stick with advertising. Alphabet laid off 12,000 people in January 2023 while buying back about $60 billion of stock a year.
From around August 2023 Google made Google Flights route pages indexable, and the tool's share of top organic flight results rose sharply, often above airlines' own pages. Southwest fares appeared in May 2024. Alphabet paid its first dividend alongside a $70 billion buyback authorization in April 2024 as employees questioned falling morale.
Judge Mehta found Google an illegal search monopolist in August 2024, and the EU issued preliminary DMA findings in March 2025 that Google favored its own travel services. Remedies finalized in 2025 left Chrome with Google, and Google appealed. Google Flights kept adding features, including a basic-economy filter and AI Flight Deals, while Alphabet spent $62.2 billion and $45.4 billion on buybacks in 2024 and 2025, then halted them in 2026.
The European Commission fined Alphabet 460 million euros in July 2026 for self-preferencing its own services, including flights, in Google Search under the DMA. In September Google removed the Google Flights unit and live travel pricing from European search results, while in the U.S. it folded Flights price tracking into AI Mode. Alphabet has stopped buying back stock to fund AI spending, and its appeals of the U.S. rulings continue.
Alternatives
Broader coverage of budget and low-cost carriers (Ryanair, Wizz Air, AirAsia) that Google Flights often misses. Particularly strong for complex international itineraries, open-jaw routes, and multi-city trips. The 'Everywhere' search feature rivals Google's Explore. Easy switch — just use the website, no account required.
AI-powered price prediction with push notifications for optimal booking timing, plus the ability to actually book within the app. Offers price freeze and cancellation protection features that Google Flights lacks. Stronger on mobile but with its own aggressive monetization patterns. Moderate switch.
Specializes in finding creative route combinations by stitching together separate one-way fares from different airlines — a 'virtual interlining' approach that surfaces itineraries invisible to Google Flights. Best for flexible travelers willing to self-connect. The trade-off is more complexity and less protection if a connecting flight is missed.
Dimensional Breakdown
Summaries below were written by AI agents based on the cited evidence. They are editorial interpretations, not independent research findings.
Dimension History
Timeline (55 events)
Google Announces $700M ITA Software Acquisition
Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, the developer of the QPX flight data engine that powered most competing travel search engines including Kayak, Orbitz, and TripAdvisor, for $700 million in cash. The acquisition faced immediate antitrust opposition from competitors who feared Google would control critical flight data infrastructure.
DOJ Approves ITA Acquisition With Five-Year Consent Decree
The U.S. Department of Justice approved Google's acquisition of ITA Software with a consent decree requiring Google to license the QPX flight data system to competitors on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms for five years. Google was also required to maintain firewall restrictions preventing unauthorized use of competitively sensitive data from ITA's customers.
FTC Opens Formal Investigation Into Google Search Bias
The Federal Trade Commission launched a formal investigation into whether Google unfairly promoted its own vertical search services, including travel, shopping, and local results, while demoting competitors. The probe examined whether Google's prominent display of its own services in search results constituted anticompetitive self-preferencing, directly relevant to how Google Flights would later be displayed above rival travel search engines.
Google Launches Flight Search
Google launched Flight Search on September 13, 2011, reachable at google.com/flights and via a 'Flights' link on flight-related Google searches. At launch it was limited to round-trip economy-class flights between a limited number of U.S. cities, and it was the first product built on the ITA Software QPX engine; early coverage noted its notably fast results compared with rival travel sites.
FTC Closes Google Search Bias Investigation Without Action
The FTC closed its roughly 19-month investigation into Google's search practices without bringing a case; Google made voluntary commitments on ad-campaign portability and on letting websites opt out of its vertical services. A staff report leaked in 2015 found Google had altered results to benefit its own services, including travel, but staff did not recommend suing over search bias, citing Google's procompetitive justifications. The decision not to act on self-preferencing set a permissive U.S. precedent as Google Flights gained prominent placement in search results over the following decade.
Study Finds Google's Exclusive Flight Search OneBox Diverts Clicks From Rivals
By 2013 Google displayed its own Flight Search results in an exclusive 'OneBox' at the top of flight-related search results, a placement never given to rivals such as Kayak. A working paper by Ben Edelman and Zhenyu Lai, comparing searches before and after Flight Search's introduction, found the OneBox cut click-through rates on unpaid search results by 65% and raised clicks on paid ad links by 85%, with online travel agencies hit hardest.
Google Creates Non-Voting Class C Shares to Preserve Founder Control
Google executed an unconventional stock split creating Class C shares with zero voting rights (trading from April 3, 2014), designed to prolong co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's voting control. The move meant stock issuance for acquisitions and employee compensation would not erode the founders' roughly 56% combined voting power, despite their owning a minority of the company's economic interest.
Google Restructures Under Alphabet Holding Company
Google restructured into Alphabet Inc. on October 2, 2015, with Sundar Pichai becoming CEO of Google while Larry Page and Sergey Brin transitioned to run Alphabet. The reorganization was done without a shareholder vote under Delaware corporate law. Google Flights continued as part of the Google subsidiary within the Alphabet umbrella.
DOJ Consent Decree on ITA Software Licensing Expires
The DOJ consent decree's five-year obligations, which required Google to license QPX flight-search software to competitors on terms substantially similar to existing agreements or on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, ran five years from the court's entry of the final judgment on October 5, 2011, and lapsed in October 2016. The expiration removed the regulatory guardrail that had protected competing travel search engines' access to the flight data infrastructure Google acquired through ITA Software.
Google Flights Adds Fare-Increase Predictions
Google Flights began showing when fares on a tracked flight or route were expected to rise, and by how much, based on historical data, and started notifying users when a current fare was about to expire. The tips also suggested alternate airports or dates to save money, putting Google in more direct competition with Hopper.
Alphabet Authorizes $7 Billion Buyback, Its Second Repurchase Program
In October 2016 Alphabet's board authorized repurchases of up to about $7.0 billion of Class C stock, announced with third-quarter 2016 results. It followed Alphabet's first-ever buyback, a roughly $5.1 billion program announced in October 2015 and completed by mid-2016. Annual repurchases later grew to about $18.4 billion in 2019, $59.3 billion in 2022 and $62.2 billion in 2024.
U.S. Department of Labor Sues Google Over Pay Discrimination Data
The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs sued Google for refusing to provide compensation data needed for a routine compliance review. The investigation, covering 2014-2017, uncovered systemic pay disparities for female software engineers and hiring discrimination against female and Asian applicants. Google eventually settled for $3.8 million, with payments to over 5,500 current employees and job applicants.
EU Fines Google 2.42 Billion Euros for Shopping Self-Preferencing
The European Commission imposed a record fine of 2.42 billion euros on Google for abusing its search engine dominance by systematically promoting its own comparison shopping service over competitors. While the case focused on Google Shopping, it had direct implications for Google's travel vertical search, signaling that the same self-preferencing behavior in flight search could face regulatory action.
Skift Estimates Google Travel Business Worth $100 Billion
Skift Research estimated Google's travel business would generate around $14 billion in revenue in 2017, largely from search ads bought by online travel agencies and metasearch sites, and would grow at over 20% a year. It valued Google's travel business at as much as $100 billion, more than Priceline's roughly $90 billion market cap, noting that Priceline's performance-advertising spend rose 23.5% in the first half of 2017.
Google Announces QPX Express API Shutdown
Google announced it would discontinue its QPX Express API for airfare data on April 10, 2018, cutting off the flight data feed that smaller competitors and developers relied on. The announcement came more than a year after the ITA consent decree's five-year licensing obligations lapsed. Google cited 'low interest among our travel partners'; the larger QPX Enterprise product continued.
20,000 Google Employees Walk Out Over Sexual Harassment Handling
More than 20,000 Google employees in 50 cities staged a global walkout protesting the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations. The protest was triggered by a New York Times report that Android creator Andy Rubin received a $90 million severance package despite being forced to resign over sexual misconduct allegations. Workers demanded an end to forced arbitration, pay equity, and a transparent harassment reporting process.
EU Fines Google 1.49 Billion Euros for AdSense Advertising Restrictions
The European Commission fined Google 1.49 billion euros for imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites that prevented competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo from placing their search advertisements. This was the third major EU antitrust fine against Google, reinforcing the pattern of using market dominance to suppress competitors across verticals including travel.
Alphabet Authorizes Additional $25 Billion Stock Buyback
Alphabet's board authorized up to an additional $25 billion in Class C stock repurchases in July 2019, after a $12.5 billion authorization that January, marking a significant escalation in shareholder returns. The company spent about $18.4 billion buying back its own shares that year.
Google Trips App Discontinued, Features Merged Into Ecosystem
Google shut down its standalone Google Trips travel planning app, folding its features into Google Maps, Search, and the Google Travel website. Saved notes, places and upcoming flight and hotel reservations moved to Google's Travel page and Maps, consolidating travel data inside Google's core services.
Google Flights Ends Booking Referral Charges for Airlines
Google stopped charging airlines for booking links to their websites from Google Flights, which Skift called the biggest change to how it monetizes flight search since 2011, possibly under U.S. regulatory pressure. Google also said free links from airlines or OTAs could in some cases appear above its own flights module, which until then was always pinned above organic results. The change made Google Flights an even cheaper distribution channel for airlines, entrenching it as the default entry point for flight searches.
COVID-19 Collapse Reveals Google's Travel Advertising Dependency
Travel ad spending on Google collapsed as the COVID-19 pandemic halted global air travel. Expedia said its marketing spend would fall by 80% or more in 2020, and RBC expected Booking's Google ad spending to drop from about $4 billion to $1-2 billion. The downturn exposed how much of Google's travel business depended on advertising from online travel agencies.
DOJ Files Landmark Antitrust Suit Against Google
The Department of Justice and 11 states filed a complaint accusing Google of unlawful monopolization of search and text advertising markets under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The suit alleged Google paid tens of billions in exclusive default agreements to maintain its search monopoly, which directly affects how users discover flight search tools.
NLRB Alleges Google Illegally Fired Organizing Workers
The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint alleging Google illegally surveilled employees viewing a union organizing presentation, interrogated workers, and fired two labor activists, Kathryn Spiers and Laurence Berland. The complaint came after Google hired a consulting firm known for anti-union work. Google maintained its actions were justified by policy violations.
Google Fires AI Ethics Researcher Timnit Gebru
Google abruptly fired Timnit Gebru, co-lead of its ethical AI team, after she refused to retract a research paper critical of large language models. Over 2,600 Google employees and 4,300 supporters signed protest letters. Three months later, Google also fired Margaret Mitchell, the team's founder. The firings demonstrated a pattern of retaliating against employees who raised internal concerns.
France Fines Google 100 Million Euros for Cookie Consent Violations
CNIL, France's data protection authority, fined Google 100 million euros for placing tracking cookies on users' devices without obtaining valid consent. The fine specifically addressed google.fr, where cookies were deposited automatically before users could configure their preferences, violating both the French Data Protection Act and the EU ePrivacy Directive.
Google Flights Removes Non-CO2 Emissions From Carbon Calculator
In July 2022 Google removed non-CO2 climate impacts, including contrails, from its flight carbon emissions calculator, despite research showing non-CO2 effects make up about two-thirds of aviation's total climate impact. The change made flights appear to have significantly less environmental impact. Greenpeace's chief scientist said Google had 'airbrushed' a huge chunk of aviation's climate impact; critics noted that nine in ten online searches run through Google.
Google Ends Book on Google for Flights, Sticks With Advertising
Google announced it would shut its Book on Google flight-booking feature for users outside the U.S. at the end of September 2022 and in the U.S. sometime after March 31, 2023, saying fewer travelers were using it and preferred to book with airlines or OTAs. Google Flights continued as a search tool that sends users to partners, leaving advertising as its business model.
Google Lays Off 12,000 Employees Amid Record Profitability
CEO Sundar Pichai announced the elimination of approximately 12,000 roles, about 6% of Google's global workforce. Affected U.S. employees received notice immediately. Pichai cited hiring for 'a different economic reality,' though Alphabet remained highly profitable and would go on to spend $61.5 billion on stock buybacks that same year while committing to massive AI infrastructure investment.
Google Flights Launches Price Guarantee Feature for U.S. Flights
Google Flights introduced a price guarantee feature where Google monitors fares on selected itineraries and pays users the difference (up to $500/year per account) if prices drop after booking. While adding genuine user value, the feature deepened travelers' reliance on Google's ecosystem by incentivizing booking through Google Flights rather than directly with airlines or competing search engines.
Alphabet Authorizes $70 Billion Stock Buyback
Alphabet's board authorized $70 billion in share repurchases in April 2023, matching the $70 billion authorization of April 2022; Alphabet bought back $59.3 billion of stock in 2022. The authorization came three months after Google laid off 12,000 employees citing 'a different economic reality'. Shares rose more than 3% in extended trading on the announcement.
Google Flights Begins Massive Search Indexing Surge
Around August 2023 Google began making Google Flights route pages indexable, catapulting the site's visibility in organic search results for flight-related queries. PROS found that between December 2023 and August 2024 Google Flights' share of tracked keywords in the top 5 rose by a median 13.5 percentage points on desktop and 12.9 on mobile across analyzed countries; in the U.S., its first-page mobile rankings rose 25.1 points. PROS linked the timing to mounting antitrust scrutiny.
Alphabet Issues First-Ever Dividend Alongside $70 Billion Buyback
Alphabet announced its first-ever cash dividend of $0.20 per share and authorized an additional $70 billion in stock buybacks. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page received $146 million and $78 million respectively in dividend payouts. This came amid continuing layoffs, with employees at a May 2024 all-hands meeting questioning why record performance was not translating into higher pay.
Southwest Fares Appear on Google Flights
Southwest Airlines fares began appearing on Google Flights in May 2024, ending a long-standing gap: the carrier had kept its fares off Google Flights and OTAs to cut distribution costs. Southwest said it wanted more visibility for its flights and fares among Google Flights users.
Google Drops Plan to Deprecate Third-Party Cookies in Chrome
Google announced it would no longer deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome, proposing instead a user-choice prompt, after years of delays to a commitment first made in 2020. The UK Competition and Markets Authority had been reviewing the Privacy Sandbox plan over competition concerns. The reversal preserved third-party tracking across the web, including of travel search behavior.
Federal Court Rules Google Maintains Illegal Search Monopoly
Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a monopolist that illegally maintained its dominance in general search and search text advertising, the first such finding against a tech giant since the Microsoft case. The 277-page opinion found Google held an 89.2% share of general search, rising to 94.9% on mobile, maintained through exclusive default agreements. Claims that Google's results pages harmed vertical providers such as travel sites had been dismissed before trial in August 2023, so the ruling turned on default distribution deals rather than on Google Flights.
CJEU Upholds 2.42 Billion Euro Google Shopping Fine
The Court of Justice of the European Union upheld the European Commission's 2017 fine of 2.42 billion euros against Google for self-preferencing its own comparison shopping service, ending a seven-year legal saga. The ruling established binding legal precedent that self-preferencing by dominant platforms constitutes an abuse of market position, directly applicable to Google's treatment of travel search competitors.
Alphabet Commits $75 Billion AI Capex While Continuing Layoffs and Buybacks
Alphabet announced plans to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, mostly for AI infrastructure, later raised to $91-93 billion. The spending came after $62.2 billion in stock buybacks in 2024 and alongside continued job cuts, including in Google Cloud in February 2025 and the Platforms & Devices unit in April 2025.
Google Cuts Employees in Cloud Division Amid Restructuring
Google cut several teams in its Cloud division in February 2025, mostly operations support staff, while offering buyouts in its HR unit, continuing workforce reductions that began in January 2023. Further cuts followed in the Platforms & Devices division in April and more than 100 cloud design roles in October 2025.
EU Finds Google Violates DMA With Travel Search Self-Preferencing
The European Commission issued preliminary findings that Google's parent Alphabet breached the Digital Markets Act by self-preferencing its own travel services, including Google Flights, by displaying them at the top of search results with enhanced visual formats while demoting rival OTAs. DMA violations carry fines of up to 10% of global annual revenue, potentially exceeding $35 billion for Alphabet.
Court Rules Google Illegally Monopolized Ad Tech in Second Antitrust Loss
Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled Google unlawfully monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets and unlawfully tied them together. Evidence at trial showed Google kept a 20% take rate on its AdX exchange for over a decade; a Google executive had internally called the AdX margin an 'irrationally high rent'. This was Google's second antitrust loss following the August 2024 search monopoly ruling. The DOJ sought structural divestiture of Google's ad exchange.
Google Launches AI-Powered Flight Deals in Google Flights
Google introduced AI-powered Flight Deals, allowing users to describe trips in natural language and receive AI-generated flight recommendations. Initially launched in the U.S., Canada, and India, the tool was expanded globally to over 200 countries by November 2025. While adding user value, the feature deepened airlines' dependency on Google's platform, expanded the data collection surface, and increased soft lock-in through ecosystem-specific AI capabilities unavailable on competing flight search engines.
Google Flights Adds Filter to Exclude Basic Economy Fares
After months of limited testing, Google announced that a filter to exclude basic economy fares would roll out for flights within the U.S. and Canada, a feature travelers had long requested. It was announced alongside the beta of AI-powered Flight Deals.
Column Questions Google Flights' Dodgy Third-Party Booking Partners
A BoardingGroup.One column argued that Google Flights increasingly feels like 'a minefield of dodgy sites that lure with cheap fares.' It noted that obscure agencies such as CheckNfly, Traveasy and Go2Trip regularly undercut airlines and mainstream OTAs on long-haul searches, and that these names recur in complaints about phantom tickets, sudden fare increases and refunds that never arrive, with airlines often declining to help because the booking sits with the agent.
CNIL Fines Google 325 Million Euros for Cookie and Gmail Ad Violations
France's CNIL imposed a 325 million euro fine on Google for displaying advertisements between Gmail users' emails without consent and placing cookies during Google account creation without valid user agreement. The investigation, prompted by a complaint from NOYB, found users were encouraged to accept personalized advertising cookies through manipulative design during account setup.
Judge Issues Behavioral Remedies in Google Search Antitrust Case
Judge Mehta rejected the DOJ's proposal to force Google to divest Chrome and the Android operating system, instead imposing behavioral remedies including a prohibition on exclusive distribution contracts for Google Search and Chrome, and requirements to share search data with rivals. Google retained ownership of Chrome but lost the ability to maintain its monopoly through exclusionary deals.
Investigation Reveals Google's Covert Lobbying Against California Privacy Bill
A CalMatters/Markup investigation revealed Google opposed California's AB 566 browser privacy bill without ever publicly declaring a position, asking small businesses to sign a petition issued by the Google-funded Connected Commerce Council and paying the California Chamber of Commerce, which led public opposition. The bill's author did not know about Google's push until a reporter asked. Google had spent more on California lobbying in 2024 than in the previous 20 years combined.
Texas Secures Record $1.375 Billion Privacy Settlement From Google
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton finalized a $1.375 billion settlement with Google over allegations of unlawful location tracking, incognito browsing monitoring, and biometric data collection without consent. The amount dwarfed the largest previous single-state settlement of $93 million and exceeded the $391 million secured by a forty-state coalition, reflecting the scale of Google's privacy violations.
Google Expands Flight Deals Globally and Announces Agentic Travel Booking
Google expanded its AI-powered Flight Deals tool globally and said it was building agentic booking for flights and hotels in AI Mode with partners including Booking.com, Expedia and Marriott, letting users compare options and complete bookings with a chosen partner. Google said the work was at an early stage.
Judge Finalizes Google Search Antitrust Remedies
Judge Mehta issued his final remedies judgment, barring Google from distribution agreements for Search and other apps lasting more than one year, extending the rules to generative-AI products, and setting up a technical committee to oversee required sharing of search index and interaction data with qualified competitors. Critics argued the behavioral remedies fell short of the structural changes the DOJ had sought.
Google Asks Appeals Court to Overturn Search Monopoly Ruling
Google filed a 111-page brief asking the D.C. Circuit to reverse Judge Mehta's 2024 finding that it illegally maintained a search monopoly and the data-sharing remedies that followed, calling the ruling as basic an error of antitrust law as a court can make. The Justice Department cross-appealed seeking stronger relief, including a Chrome divestiture.
Alphabet Halts Buybacks and Raises About $85 Billion in Equity for AI
Alphabet announced an $80 billion equity raise on June 1, 2026, upsized to $84.75 billion, including a $10 billion private placement with Berkshire Hathaway, to fund AI infrastructure. It repurchased no shares in the first half of 2026, after $28.3 billion in the first half of 2025, though its 5%-a-year dividend increases continued. Capital spending guidance for 2026 rose to $195-205 billion.
EU Fines Alphabet 460 Million Euros for Self-Preferencing in Google Search
The European Commission found that Alphabet breached Article 6(5) of the Digital Markets Act by giving its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, more prominent placement in Google Search, using top positions, enhanced visuals and filters that third-party services did not get. It fined Alphabet 460 million euros, alongside a separate 430 million euro fine over Google Play, and ordered the non-compliance to end.
Google Brings Flights Price Tracking Into AI Mode
Google added Google Flights price tracking to AI Mode in more than 180 countries and territories, letting users describe a trip, compare flights from over 300 partner airlines and travel sites, and ask AI Mode to track prices by email. AI Mode also began showing flight costs in points or miles for some loyalty programs.
Court Declines to Order AdX Sale in Google Ad Tech Case
Judge Leonie Brinkema declined the Justice Department's request to force Google to divest its AdX ad exchange, ordering behavioral remedies instead: Prebid interoperability for AdX and DFP, AdX bids to rival publisher ad servers on equal terms, sharing of bid data with publishers, and a court-appointed technical monitor. The case concerns Google's display ad tech, not Google Flights.
Google Strips Flights Unit and Travel Features From European Search
To comply with the DMA after the July fine, Google revamped European search results to show separate units for third-party aggregators and direct suppliers, and removed date filters, live pricing and descriptive tags from the supplier unit and its vacation rentals unit. Aggregators welcomed the change; Google said it would hurt consumers and businesses.
Evidence (45 citations)
D1: User Value Erosion
D2: Business Customer Exploitation
D3: Shareholder Extraction
D4: Lock-in & Switching Costs
D5: Twiddling & Algorithmic Opacity
D6: Dark Patterns
D7: Advertising & Monetization Pressure
D8: Competitive Conduct
D9: Labor & Governance
D10: Regulatory & Legal Posture
Scoring Log (8 entries)
49->42. Since Feb 2026: EU DMA non-compliance decision fined Alphabet EUR460M for search self-preferencing incl. flights (2026-07-23); Google removed the Flights unit and live travel pricing from EEA search (2026-09-08); Alphabet halted buybacks and raised ~$85B equity (June 2026); Google appealed the search ruling (May 2026); ad-tech court refused AdX sale (2026-09-02); Flights added AI Mode price tracking and global Flight Deals. D1 4->3 (correction: fact audit removed checkout-discrepancy and fee figures; record shows features improving), D3 6->3 (event: buyback halt; Alphabet-wide finance weighted lightly, no sign Flights is starved), D5 5->4 (correction: '85% accuracy' and personalization claims unsupported; opacity is search placement, not pricing), D6 3->2 (correction: own UI clean, basic-economy filter added; third-party problems rest on one column), D7 5->4 (recalibration: no in-product ads since 2020; monetized via surrounding search ads and data). D2, D4, D8, D9, D10 unchanged; D8 now rests on the Flights-specific DMA decision rather than the general search/ad-tech rulings. Alphabet-wide items (buybacks, layoffs, lobbying, privacy fines) scored only in D3/D9/D10 and weighted lightly. Privacy Sandbox wind-down (lead 6) not added: Chrome-specific. Eras: era 1 re-dated 2011-04-01->2011-04-08 (DOJ clearance); 'Consent Decree Expires' re-dated 2016-04-01->2016-10-05, relabeled 'Consent Decree Lapses'; 'API Shutdown Era' re-dated 2018-04-01->2017-11-01 (QPX shutdown announced), relabeled 'QPX Express Shutdown'; 'Antitrust Crosshairs' re-dated 2022-01-01->2020-10-20 (DOJ suit) and split at 2023-08-01 -> new 'Organic Indexing Surge'; 'Monopoly Rulings' kept; 'DMA Enforcement Era' re-dated 2026-02-19 (assessment date)->2026-07-23 (DMA decision), relabeled 'EU Self-Preferencing Fine'. All eras re-scored.
Checked 87 items + prose. 43 verified, 27 corrected (11 date-only), 15 re-sourced, 2 removed. Invented: (a) FTC staff 'should be condemned' self-preferencing recommendation - leaked staff report did not recommend suing on search bias (ICLE/CSMonitor 2015); (b) '85% price-prediction accuracy' - only on AI content farm Mighty Travels (Google's 85% figure is delay prediction); (c) BoardingGroup quote altered to 'impossibly cheap fares' (article: 'cheap fares'); (d) '$50 or more' checkout discrepancy - Mighty Travels only. Also fixed: consent decree expiry April->October 2016, 51.2% founder voting power in 2014 (56.1%), $61.5B vs $59.3B 2022 buybacks, 2019 $25B buyback April->July, CA $11M lobbying quarter is Q3 2024, EU DMA findings preliminary, Sage case study journal/year, 'irrationally high rent' was a Google exec's words.
Removed typed-in site scores from alternatives text (they go stale on re-score; the page shows live scores). No other changes.
Triaged 2026-06-30 (Wave A); no rescore warranted (no material change / changes sub-threshold / flag refuted on verification).
Added 2 missing dimension narratives
Fixed Hopper score reference (53 → 50) and classification (Severely → Actively Enshittifying)