Google on November 9, 2026 updated its Search Central documentation to say that the aggregator unit and the supplier unit, two search features it shows only to users in the European Economic Area, now support "things to do" queries.

Things to do becomes the sixth query category for both units, after hotels, flights, long-distance trains or buses, products and local businesses. It is the second expansion since Google first published the documentation on September 8, 2026. Local businesses were added on September 18.

In Short

Google now lets approved booking platforms fill a dedicated results box in the EEA when people search for things to do, and shows a second box next to it for attractions and operators that sell directly. Tour and ticket platforms have to apply and send Google a data feed to appear in the first box, while direct providers can be picked up from their websites alone, but only when the platform box is on the page. The unit pages do not say which platforms are approved, how often the boxes show or what happens to Google's own results for these searches.

What the changelog says

The entry is short. Under the heading "Added 'things to do' query support to the aggregator and supplier units," Google wrote that it had "Updated the aggregator unit and supplier unit documentation to include support for 'things to do' queries." The reason given was one line: "The aggregator unit and supplier unit now support 'things to do' queries."

Both pages carry the stamp "Last updated 2026-11-09 UTC." So does the overview page that groups them, titled "Regional differences in Search experience." Its table now lists the same six categories for each unit: hotels, flights, ground transportation, local businesses, things to do and products. The same table already listed things to do for a separate feature, structured data carousels, which Google labels as a beta in the EEA and also runs in South Africa.

Neither unit page defines what counts as a things to do query. The nearest description sits in a different part of Google's developer documentation. Google's Actions Center overview for local vertical search services, last updated on September 9, 2026, describes local searches as covering dining, services such as beauty salons, and things to do, with attractions as the example. Seen from that page, the category was part of the feed program two months before the Search Central pages named it.

How the aggregator unit works

Google describes the aggregator unit as a multi-provider feature for vertical search services, a group that takes in online travel agencies, comparison shopping services, metasearch engines and directories. In practice that means booking and comparison platforms, rather than the hotels, airlines or attractions that sell the product. "Aggregator units allow users to more easily see results from aggregators," according to the aggregator unit page.

Each unit shows results from one aggregator at a time. "The top-ranked provider's results are expanded by default," according to the aggregator unit page. Google's example is a search for "hotels in paris," where a user "may see a list of top-ranked hotels with photos, prices, or star ratings from an eligible provider." Clicks inside the unit go to the aggregator's own web page. Users can switch to an alternative aggregator from a list, if one is available, which expands a unit filled with that provider's results instead. "Only one aggregator unit will show at a time," the page says.

Next to it sits the supplier unit. "To provide visibility to direct providers, Google Search shows another unit alongside the aggregator unit," according to Google. The supplier unit page describes it as "a dedicated feature for direct providers (for example, individual hotels or airlines, brick-and-mortar business owners, or providers of services like plumbing)." It has a hard dependency: "The supplier unit only appears if the aggregator unit appears."

Both pages are illustrated with hotel mock-ups. The aggregator unit image shows a Paris hotel search with a map, euro prices and a list of alternative providers below. The supplier unit image shows a carousel headed "Hotel websites," with prices such as "from €156" and "More details" buttons. Neither page has an illustration of what a things to do result looks like.

What a things to do aggregator has to supply

Eligibility for the aggregator unit rests on three conditions. Businesses qualify "when they are approved as a Vertical Search Service (VSS), they provide the necessary data, and they meet the established quality standards to participate," according to the aggregator unit page.

The first step is a form. For ground transportation, flight, hotel, local business and things to do queries, Google sends applicants to the Google Search Aggregator Features form. Product queries go through a different route, the comparison shopping services contact form. Applicants must also "have the relevant content" for the query type they want to appear for, and all content in the unit must comply with Google Search's content policies.

The data requirement differs by category, and the difference matters for how fresh the results can be. "For flight and transport queries, the unit is populated by real-time APIs," according to Google. "For lodging, local business, and things to do queries, the unit is populated by direct data feed integrations." Hotels use the Lodging Point of Interest Feed. Things to do shares a specification with local businesses: the aggregator unit page points both categories to the "Local and things to do Point of Interest Feed documentation."

That documentation lives in Google's Actions Center, and it adds conditions the Search Central page does not repeat. According to its integration overview, a partner has to be an aggregator rather than an individual chain, and must have a direct contractual relationship with the merchants it lists. Onboarding runs through six stages: setup, feed implementation in a sandbox, a sandbox review, feed implementation in production, a production review and launch. Google also reserves the right to include or exclude merchants as it reviews new verticals. On data use, the Actions Center overview says information sent through the feed is used only to populate the partner's own unit, and never to enrich Google's own services or competitors' units. It describes the feed as carrying core details such as business name, address and phone number, plus category and photos.

Google already runs a separate Things to do program in the same Actions Center. That program, documented on a page last updated on April 1, 2026, takes feeds from attractions, tour operators and activity providers, often through connectivity partners, and from online travel agencies and reservation technology companies; the same feed can also be used for Things to do ads. The aggregator unit documentation does not point to that program. A platform already sending Google a Things to do feed has, on the face of the documentation, a second integration to build for the EEA unit.

Google's presentation rules

The aggregator unit page closes with best practices that apply to things to do listings as much as to hotels. Google encourages providers to "Include rich entity details," listing images of the entity, detailed descriptions and specifications, "Verified user ratings and review counts," specific categories, and "Key amenities, features, and operating hours." Its category example is hotel-specific: "Boutique hotel" or "Eco-resort" instead of just a generic "Hotel."

Titles get their own rule. "Factual, descriptive titles formatted in title case are easier for users to read," according to Google, which recommends "avoiding all caps, excessive punctuation, emoji, or promotional text (such as 'BEST DEALS' or 'Free shipping') in entity names." For images, Google asks for "clean backgrounds without watermarks or promotional overlay badges." On prices, Google asks providers to "Ensure prices and availability in feeds match the landing page as closely as possible, and refresh feeds regularly to remove expired or out-of-stock listings." Performance tracking points to Search Console.

For tours and attractions, where slots sell out and prices move by date, the last of those rules is the demanding one. A feed refreshed on a schedule is not a live availability check, and Google's own text separates the two: real-time APIs for flights and transport, feeds for everything else.

Crawling is enough for the supplier unit

The barrier for direct providers is lower. To be eligible for the supplier unit, a website must serve users in the EEA, and the business must be a direct provider "that could appear for queries related to hotels, flights, long-distance trains or buses, products, local businesses, and things to do."

No feed is required. "You don't need to provide additional data beyond what's accessible through web crawling to appear in this feature," according to the supplier unit page. "However, supplier results can be enhanced with data feeds, if available."

The link attached to that sentence, "Learn more about supplier feeds," leads to the Hotels starter guide in Google's Hotel Center help. That guide covers agencies, hotel owners, connectivity partners and vacation rentals. Nothing on it addresses a museum, a tour operator or a theme park. For things to do providers, the documentation as published on November 9 offers no supplier feed route of its own.

The examples on the supplier page have not changed either. They still name individual hotels, airlines, brick-and-mortar business owners and plumbing services. Tour operators and attractions appear nowhere by name; they are covered only through the phrase "things to do" in the eligibility list.

Gaps in the documentation

Several questions remain open after the update. How often does the aggregator unit appear for things to do queries? Which aggregators have been approved for the category? How does Google rank one aggregator above another when deciding whose results are expanded by default? The pages do not say.

Nor do they say what happens to Google's existing things to do results in the EEA. The Actions Center overview for local vertical search services states that the aggregator unit replaces existing units on the results page, in a passage about local searches. Whether that applies to every things to do query, and to which existing features, is not spelled out on the Search Central pages.

There is also a small inconsistency in the aggregator unit page itself. Its opening section lists "long-distance trains" among the supported categories, while the "Feature availability" section, written after it, says "long distance trains or buses." The supplier page and the overview table both include buses, under ground transportation.

From test to fine to redesign

Google's pages never mention the Digital Markets Act. The units exist because of it.

Google first trialled dedicated aggregator units in Europe in early 2024, when it updated search experiences in the EEA with new rich result units for places, jobs, flights and products. Hotels were hit early. In May 2024, hospitality technology company Mirai reported that hotels in DMA regions had seen a 30% drop in clicks and a 36% decrease in direct bookings compared with non-DMA markets.

In November 2024, Google announced more than 20 modifications to search features in Europe, including a test in Germany, Belgium and Estonia that removed hotel maps and results in favour of a "ten blue links" format. Travel intermediaries pushed for more. In July 2025, the travel industry called for stricter enforcement of the DMA against Google. In February 2026, Reuters reported that Google was set to test vertical search rivals in EU results, with the top-ranked vertical search service shown by default, starting with lodging and with flights and other categories to follow.

The decisive step came on July 23, 2026. The European Commission fined Google 890 million euros and gave it 60 days to fix search, with 460 million euros of that total for self-preferencing in Google Search. Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said the company was weighing an appeal and that it would have to strip real-time features such as instant hotel and flight pricing. When the decision text became public, it showed cease-and-desist orders covering nine services, among them products, flights, trains, lodging and places intermediation. Things to do is not named separately in that list.

The deadline fell on September 21. On September 8, Google published the regional documentation that introduced both units, covering hotels, flights, long-distance trains or buses and products. According to Reuters, as reported by Search Engine Journal, Google told the news agency the redesign was the largest reduction in quality of service in the 29-year history of Search. On September 17 and 18, free product listings disappeared from EEA results within two days. Local businesses joined the units on September 18. Later that month, Nick Fox, the Google senior vice president who runs Search, described the European changes in an interview as the biggest degradation of the product, as PPC Land reported when Google dropped live prices and trip dates in EU search.

The November 9 update extends that framework to a category in which Google runs its own Things to do program, with partner feeds and Things to do ads, according to its Actions Center documentation.

Why it matters for marketers

For travel marketers working in the EEA, the update can change who controls the first view of a things to do search. Where the unit appears, the default expanded results come from one approved aggregator, and clicks go to that aggregator's site. An attraction that sells tickets directly appears, if at all, in the supplier unit, which exists only when the aggregator unit does.

That arrangement has a familiar shape. The Mirai figures from 2024 described what happened to hotels when intermediaries gained ground in DMA markets. Whether tours and attractions follow the same pattern depends on data Google has not published: impression share, click share and the order in which aggregators are ranked.

For aggregators, the opening is real but gated. Approval as a vertical search service, a contractual relationship with every listed merchant, a sandbox and production review, and a feed built to the local specification all come before a single result shows. The documentation gives platforms that already feed Google's Things to do program no sign that the same integration counts for the EEA unit.

Paid search is a separate question. Google merged its travel ad formats into Search campaigns in April 2026, folding hotel and flight formats into standard Search campaigns with AI Max. Neither unit page mentions ads. How Google's Things to do ads sit alongside an aggregator unit on the same results page is not addressed.

Google has expanded the units twice in about two months. Hotels, flights, ground transportation, products, local businesses and now things to do span travel, retail and local search in the EEA. Whether that design satisfies the decision of July 23 is a question for the Commission.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google, vertical search services such as online travel agencies, metasearch engines, comparison shopping services and directories, and direct providers such as attractions and tour operators that serve users in the European Economic Area.

What: Google added "things to do" queries to the aggregator unit and the supplier unit, the sixth query category for both. Aggregators must be approved as vertical search services and supply a Local and things to do Point of Interest Feed; direct providers can appear in the supplier unit through web crawling, but only when the aggregator unit appears.

When: The change was logged in the Search Central documentation changelog on November 9, 2026. The units were first documented on September 8, 2026, and local businesses were added on September 18, 2026.

Where: Google Search for users in the European Economic Area. The documentation for both units states that they are available only in the EEA.

Why: Google describes the change as support for a new query type. The units were introduced after the European Commission's July 23, 2026 Digital Markets Act decision, which fined Google 460 million euros for self-preferencing in search and required changes within 60 days.