Google being evil, yet again. In fact, while I understand the frustration of Expedia and Trip Advisor, I think it is a bit more complicated.
I don't think so. I think that the hotels module may be useful, but it's also confusing. In particular, it breaks the user expectation that Google search will give you the best results from the open web, and not give you a "module", particularly not one with paid placement. That is, IMHO, Google is overstepping its bounds as a search engine by providing (even useful) modules. And I think this has a negative cognitive impact on users (in particular, it ruins their intuition about what they are seeing, who's paying for what, and why).
Only for people like us, technically inclined and on this forum and probably those who saw Google being born and innovate its way to the top of the market. Most of the people I know find google's results insanely useful. It's no longer a search engine or an app. You want to find out something? You "google" it. They do not distinguish it as "just" a search engine.
>it breaks the user expectation that Google search will give you the best results from the open web,
That expectation is no longer true. That probably died a decade ago when Android started gaining steam all over the world. And certainly not true for those who don't remember the world before smartphones or when gmail offering unlimited storage was "big" deal.
Users don't like it when you change context, the underlying assumption of the interaction. Usually they can't articulate what's bothering them. In this case, they are sub-consciously expecting "fair" results, e.g. something consistent with the "Google Bargain" back in the beginning, that Goog would give you great, fair, results, ranked by utility, and add only a few simple, mostly text ads that you are easy to tune out completely if you want to. The Bargain has changed in many significant ways over the years, and things like the Hotels Module certainly subvert the Bargain in a serious way, and I would argue it's unsettling to people (although I don't have hard data on that).
Not only for "find something". Google is everyone's launchpad, people google 'facebook' to go there, or really any question that the cumbersome mobile interface does not make easy to answer.
I don't think so. I think that the hotels module may be useful, but it's also confusing. In particular, it breaks the user expectation that Google search will give you the best results from the open web, and not give you a "module", particularly not one with paid placement. That is, IMHO, Google is overstepping its bounds as a search engine by providing (even useful) modules. And I think this has a negative cognitive impact on users (in particular, it ruins their intuition about what they are seeing, who's paying for what, and why).