Why? If I search for a specific thing (Expedia), why would Google assume I want to see other options that I did not ask for other than "it's more profitable for Google"? More specifically, in the event I want other options, why is the correct answer "you want to see the other options that are paying Google the most"? That's not "pro-competition", that's "pro-Google".
Google should recognise that a search for Expedia is either: a) For Expedia b) For a travel holiday
Why, short of mind reading (I assume they're working on it, but it's not in the 10Q), should Google ever assume B?
And the same applies to other terms like Kleenex, Ziploc, aspirin, etc.
I don't think that makes sense. Or, at least, such results should be below all the actually relevant results.
If I'm searching for Expedia, then what I want is results about Expedia. Nothing else. If I want to know about other travel sites, I'd be searching for "travel sites" instead.
Jacuzzi, styrofoam, and Super Glue are all brand specific trademarked items[0], but I doubt most users care about that when they're searching for those terms.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
but for #2 there's a pro-competition argument here. If you search for Expedia and all you ever get is Expedia and expedia pages underneath that, in theory that's good. But what if you don't know about other online travel sites? You'll never see them, so it kind of makes sense that you are shown other sites in there.
Google should recognise that a search for Expedia is either: a) For Expedia b) For a travel holiday
and let other competitors rank for b), showing Expedia as the biggest and main CTA on the page.