EU to Develop Search Engine

William Robinson writes "Digital Media is reporting that French President Jacques Chirac is making plans for a European search engine called "Quaero" to rival US internet companies such as Yahoo and Google. From the article: 'Those involved in the Quaero project, including Thomson, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, have said that it will be much more than a typical search engine. It will provide an array of multimedia tools for identifying and indexing images, sound and text. Quaero will also reportedly include a powerful translating tool which will be able to 'understand' audio as well as text. The developers plan to make Quaero available on all platforms, including PCs, mobile devices and digital TVs.'"

Comments

Anything you can do I can do better...

[jo7hs2]

Welcome to the great technological pissing war.

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[Nutria]

at least they're building search engines and space exploration vehicles instead of nuclear weapons.

You do realize, don't you, that France is a nuclear power[0], and sold[1] to Iraq 12.5kg of 93% U-235 and "research reactor".

And lets not forget the direct German help[2] in creating Iraqi chemical weapons.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_and_weapons_of _mass_destruction
[1] http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/facility/osiraq .htm
[2] http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iraq/cw/az120103.htm l

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[lbrandy]

Well, at least they're building search engines and space exploration vehicles instead of nuclear weapons.

Considering France has nuclear weapons, and the US is building both search engines and space exploration vehicles... I am reminded of the great quote by Pauli... your statement, frankly, "isn't even wrong".

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[xcomm]

Greeting from Europe,

you may or or less right with your claims.

>You do realize, don't you, that France is a nuclear power[0], and sold[1] to Iraq 12.5kg of
>93% U-235 and "research reactor".

>And lets not forget the direct German help[2] in creating Iraqi chemical weapons.

But, I have at first the pictures in my mind, where Rumsfeld is meeting Sadam selling him US C-Waepons.

Or, maybe you remember the Antrax hipe? Wasn't it come from your own laboratories?

So the best would be to sweap before our own doors - right?

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[CyricZ]

The Republicans who whine most about "Communists" and "Liberals" destroying the free market are often amongst those who actively propose and advocate anti-free market solutions for many issues.

If there was a market for France and Germany to sell such material, knowledge, services, etc., to other countries, then according to the pro-free market Republicans ideology, France and Germany should have been able to make such sales.

Collaboration is what helps bring different nations and people together, even if it is on weaponry. Of course, it is almost always better for all when nations and people collaborate on non-lethal projects, such as search engines.

Such collaboration will lead to peace and stability far sooner than illegitimate invasions and questionable elections ever will. Of course, such invasions and elections may be engineered to cause more strife, but now we're getting into a completely different discussion.

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[dargndorp]

And lets not forget the direct German help[2] in creating Iraqi chemical weapons.

Let's not get carried away here. While there was substantial help coming to Iraq for their chemical weapons program, this was never done by Germany's government. Rather it was the case of several companies illegally exporting such goods and facilitating such deals.

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[atrizzah]

Agreed. In light of this and the Galileo story, I'm having trouble seeing how spending government money to reinvent everything America has is a good idea.

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[GreyPoopon]

And on the whole, I'd feel safer with a government run search engine than with a profit motivated one.

Uh, I hate to tell you this, but it is almost certain that any government-run project will also be, in some way, profit motivated. And unlike the corporate-run project, it won't be readily apparent exactly what the objectives are because you can't easily see where the profit is going (or coming from, for that matter).

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[TuringTest]

And unlike the corporate-run project, it won't be readily apparent exactly what the objectives are because you can't easily see where the profit is going (or coming from, for that matter).

Uh? How do you see where the money is coming from in a corporation? Care to share your source? Do you have millionare friends?

Re:Anything you can do I can do better...

[GreyPoopon]

How do you see where the money is coming from in a corporation?

OK, so you can't be 100 percent sure where the money is coming from in a corporation, but a publicly held company must document its revenue and expenses, and generally they break the source of revenue down by product type or area of business. These filings are required by the SEC (in the US), and even more detailed information is provided in the prospectus that is normally examined by stockholders. Failure to meet these guidelines will result in heavy fines from the SEC, loss of confidence by investors, and perhaps revocation of business license -- The whole Enron scandal has helped to make it much more difficult to deceive investors. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but in case you haven't noticed, most scandals you hear about lately have only been going on for a short time, as opposed to the multi-year buildup of deceit at Enron. -- In contrast, the controls put in place for a non-profit organization are much less rigorous, particularly one which includes government involvement.

January 16, 2011

[XorNand]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - January 16, 2011 - Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced it acquired France, a country located in Western Europe, mostly associated with fine cheeses, wine, berets, and the 5-yr old search engine "Quaero".

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Re:January 16, 2011

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely:

"26th of April 2006, Google declares war on France

  27th of April 2006, France surrenders and hands over presidency to Larry Page"

Re:January 16, 2011

[WTBF]

Common agricultural policy, basically it means that farmers in the EU are guaranteed pay for crops etc.

Wikipedia has more details.

Re:January 16, 2011

[Anonymous Coward]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - January 16, 2011 - Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced it acquired France, a country located in Western Europe, mostly associated with fine cheeses, wine, berets, and the 5-yr old search engine "Quaero".

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google's stock subsequently plummeted 73% on expectations that it will surrender all of its technology and market share to Microsoft.

Re:January 16, 2011

[jnaujok]

You mispelled "whine".

Oh, am I going to get nailed for this one...

Re:January 16, 2011

[Lemmy Caution]

You know what the biggest irony of France-bashing is? More than the historical inaccuracies, it's the fact that of all the European countries, the French as a culture tend to be more fond of Americans than anywhere else. Personally, I think it's the French who understand the best features of the American psyche better than any other Europeans do. (The English certainly don't.) And both the US and France are in some sense post-revolutionary republics.

It's really sad - Americans just don't get that they are slowly alienating what is, in many senses (if not in foreign policy), their closest friends in the world.

Re:January 16, 2011

[Lemmy Caution]

The French aren't particularly "warm" to anyone - because they have expectations of everyone, including themselves. They do not treat Americans worse than they treat each other.

Your knowledge of French history is also sorely lacking - the Paris Commune was, in my opinion, its greatest moment. And you have no understanding of the sacrifices it made in the 1st World War.

I've traveled extensively throughout Europe and the rest of the world. What I'm talking about is an actual appreciation for and understanding of American culture and the American psyche. The French really outstrip all the rest... but perhaps that's why Americans, secretly, dislike them.

That's great but

[Anonymous Coward]

what does it have to do with Apple?

Real reason

[Anonymous Coward]

The real reason is to filter out certain results on the query "French Military History".

Re:Real reason

[Compuser]

In that case, why involve Deutsche Telekom? Or rather, why did
Deutsche Telekom get involved?

Re:Real reason

[arethuza]

So what about the Battle of Tours?

I would have thought it would have met with approval by our friends over the pond.

I am Scots - so naturally biased because of the Auld Alliance (not mention Val D'Isere).

Quaero.com taken

[digitaldc]

Q: How exactly does Quaero translate: "Google is the best internet search engine ever made."
Inquiring minds want to know.

Check out http://www.quaero.com/ - its a marketing company from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Re:Quaero.com taken

[Xemu]

Check out http://www.quaero.com/ [quaero.com] - its a marketing company from Charlotte, North Carolina.

And they're pretty damn good at viral marketing if they even get the President of France to advertise for them.

Why?

[fishybell]

If there's a true need for it, won't the market fulfil the need?

Also, just because the government says that it should "understand" spoken audio, I'm pretty sure that no existing technology could even come close (<sarcasm>just look at the wonderful translation tools</sarcasm>).

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

The market does not solve every problem. The market has failed to provide affordable health care for every American and those who call themselves Christians have failed to pick up where the market has left off. I left my church because the governing council was more interested in how to decorate the church for Easter than in how to feed the hungry two blocks away.

Re:Why?

[NewbieProgrammerMan]

Also, just because the government says that it should "understand" spoken audio, I'm pretty sure that no existing technology could even come close...

Isn't the lack of existing technology usually the reason one funds research?

Re:Why?

[DoorFrame]

Well, yeah, but the market hasn't failed to produce an adequate search engine.

Re:Why?

[955301]

the market isn't in charge of healthcare in America. Healthcare here is recovering from a hobbling brought on by the insistence that your employer is responsible for your health and because insurance companies dilute the sting of the overpriced costs. So before it gets better, it has to get worse. But if it's left to the same pressures that drive stereos, gym memberships and washing machines, it would be a non-issue.

And you really expect a self serving religious movement to exercise compassion efficiently? Compassionate people excercise compassion, not community organizations. Get enough money in an org and the greedy come in and push the compassion right out the door.

Re:Why?

[bombadillo]

If there's a true need for it, won't the market fulfil the need [google.com]?

Not always. Examples would be the Interstate Highway system and TVA. The market generally won't carry large scale farsighted neccesities. The highway system and TVA served as a primer for private commerce in the US which we are enjoying today. Some projects have to be done by the Government when private interestes can't deliver. Quaero obviously is not one of them as several private companies are in the search engine business.

Re:Why?

[greythax]

But if it's left to the same pressures that drive stereos, gym memberships and washing machines, it would be a non-issue.

This is, most likely, not the case. Healthcare, like gasoline, fresh water, and electricity is less an elective service, and more of a utility. In order to survive, you will most likely need health care at some point. It is highly unlikely that you will shop around while your appendix is bursting. And ultimately, you will pay whatever they tell you to pay, because you could die without it. In fact, a company could raise its profits considerably by raising the cost of curing whatever Bill Gates happens to have at the moment to 1 billion dollars. Huge profits and you only have to pay a few doctors to do it. Forget everyone else; you were only getting 20 bucks profit off of them anyhow. I realize this is an extreme example, but I use it to illustrate a principle.

It is unlikely that the free market will ever take over your municipality's provision of water to your home, due to the incredible cost involved to compete over a low priced product. The same holds true with your current energy provider. Also, there is unlikely to be a business to spring up that will remove the dead people who had no health care littering your streets and causing disease, as this is the sort of thing that only governments, through some law or measure, have proven in the past that they will respond to.

Please remember, there have been several times in human history where the totally free market concept has been in full effect and found severely wanting.

Re:Why?

[fishybell]

Was Google's technology created from the market?

Yes. Google's founders are part of the market. Even if they developed a lot of it in college, they were still acting to fill a void in the market.

Or maybe was the DARPA-Internet created from the market?

Maybe you interpreted "true need" improperly. The internet was not a need before it existed. It has since become a need.

Re:Why?

[evilviper]

This is, most likely, not the case. Healthcare, like gasoline, fresh water, and electricity is less an elective service, and more of a utility.

That's strange, those all sound ideally suited for the market.

Water, for instance, doesn't involve the utilities so much anymore. People drive to a store and pick-up a forklift-load of bottled water, or they have 5 gallon bottles delivered. People get to decide how much they are willing to pay, and what level of quality they require. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the near future, the utilities at least in Southern California will only be providing "grey" water, since they have so seriously screwed up what was previously drinking water.

Gasoline is bought and sold as a commodity. The problems with gasoline right now are the oil companies acting like a oligopoly, and the US government not doing their job to stop it.

With deregulation, customers can buy their electricity from any company they chose. They have to pay a base fee for the utility to maintain the lines, but it's largely capable of being market-driven.

For healthcare, you've only listed the most critical situation, as if it's typical. The large majority of health care costs are not from your surgery in the emergency room. When you have any disease that won't kill you in the next 24 hours, you have every opportunity to shop-around for a less expensive but fully qualified doctor/hospital/etc. I know most people do this for things like dentists, as that's less commonly covered under company health-care.

I have to agree with the OP that it's the socialized aspect of US healthcare that has caused medical prices to skyrocket. Doctors will ask you if you have insurance before they want to know anything else about you... If you have insurance, then they'll insist on running a large number of unnecessary tests to inflate the bill. They give uninsured people a break, but by virtue of being able to scam more money out of insured patients, it drives up the cost to the uninsured as well.

Please remember, there have been several times in human history where the totally free market concept has been in full effect and found severely wanting.

Please list a few. There are always the extrordinary situations, but it works pretty well.

Nothing to see

[Snamh Da Ean]

Really little content in the article, a representative sample of which is "The ambitious project will probably not be available anytime in the near future. Quaero is still in the earliest stages of development, so early that none of the major players have yet ventured a guess as to how much the project might cost. When Quaero does launch, it will have a great deal of catching up to do."

So basically, a bunch of European telecoms companies are discussing how to compete with Google. And this is news why? Nothing to see here.

French search results?

[HugePedlar]

Query: "King Richard the Lionheart"

Results: 1. "I fart in your general direction".

Seriously, though - I definitely think there's a market for an effective multimedia search engine: imagine being able to whistle a song into your mic, for example and being told what it was called.

Not going to work well

[ZachPruckowski]

If it is something run by the EU, it's going to face a lot of political hurdles. I recognize that gov'ts are sometimes better at providing these services than companies, but the EU has a whole lot more red tape to get through than most other gov't organizations. And the French President supporting it is no promise it'll happen. He lost the vote to ratify the EU constitution in his country.

I'm not saying it won't happen, just that it'll face lots of problems in a new governmental organization that is still trying to get its feet under it.

Doomed to failure?

[Z0mb1eman]

As much as I'd like to see something like this happen - it's a huge project, led by SEVERAL governments and telecom companies, neither of which are exactly known for efficiency or technical brilliance. And it doesn't seem like there's much profit incentive, which makes it even less likely to be finished efficiently...

It's great that the EU is trying to assert itself in this area - having the US control 90% of the internet's technology is exactly the type of monoculture that is decried on the desktop - but is there any way this project won't end up crushed under the weight of its own bureaucracy?

Missing Feature

[Jerf]

It will also include a multi-lingual pony.

You know, I thought marketing vaporware claims were bad, but political marketing vaporware, now that's whole new dimensions of vapor. It's bad enough when marketing has excessive influence on tech development, can you imagine what it'll be like when politicians are involved as a matter of "national prestige"? I have not the humor chops to properly satirize that.

Three Cheers for an "Industrial Policy"

[Anonymous Coward]

Shades of the Nixon-Khrushchev "kitchen debate".

The Soviets turned their national scientific and research genius into making *one* perfect washing machine, as the foolish Americans splintered their effort among competing companies tearing each other to shreds in destructive competition over shape and color.

"Today, we are behind you. Soon we will be even with you, and we shall pass you, in glorious progress toward perfect socialism and communism!" (or something like that).

How can feeble, fractured American enterprises like Yahoo and Google survive competition with the might of central, coordinated European industrial policy???

Right.

Why not Gögel?

[Joseph_V]

Jokes aside, Americans may laugh because google already indexes multimedia and a host of other information like scientific journals and nudey pics. But the Euros have a healthy dose of nationalism that will likely influence their homepage.

I don't think anyone can compete with google right now in a slug match on indexing, but other factors make special purpose internet hubs a winner. (a number already exist such as yahoo and /.)

Wow

[ScaryFroMan]

I'm usually not one to say that Slashdot is slow, but geeze, SNL got it first.

Something like its a search engine that after you enter in a query, it rudely refuses.

The Latin pedant steps in...

[tibbetts]

'Quaero' (Latin for 'to search')

No, it's Latin for 'I search'. The author should have Googled it.

I had also heard...

[Loco3KGT]

that France was looking to invent a "circular transportation facilitation device." Could I get someone to confirm that?

Quaero?

[nekoniku]

Sounds delicious! I'll have two, no onions.

A few points to the EU powermongers...

[Aphrika]

1. Try and come up with a domain name that isn't ambiguous in how it's said or spelt.

2. Start asking us EU citizens if we'd mind you spending our cash on something that isn't really required

3. get out of the mindset that the internet is somehow defined by geographical borders and edges - just what is an EU search engine? Does it just search the EU? What?

4. How about attacking the problem of low tech-esteem in Europe not by building a government-sponsered programme (which no doubt will require taxpayers money to be thrown at it year on year), but by fostering an environment where private tech companies can flourish (like in the US).

Re:A few points to the EU powermongers...

[xcomm]

>Nope, can't say that I do. Could you source it for me?

My first source for this is in German, but you may use Googles ( :-) )translation:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.heise.de%2Fnewsticker%2Fresult.xhtml%3Furl% 3D%2Fnewsticker%2Fmeldung%2F67761%26words%3DBush&l angpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&c2coff=1&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&p rev=%2Flanguage_tools

The original article is from the NYT - you may have an account there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.h tml

BTW: Looks also intersting: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_ W._Bush's_domestic_spying

Quaero.eu

[Anonymous Coward]

In Europe, ".com" is not ubiquitous. Instead, the common format is to use the .xx country-based TLD. Or, if you are going to be EU-wide, as suggested in the article, then you would be Quaero.eu and not some silly .com

Additionally, who knows what kind of alternative algorithm tweak they might give results. For example, boosting .xx results slightly over .com results. Or perhaps boosting links which get .xx links TO them instead of *all* links (translation: what is more important to Europeans, as valued by links, ranks higher than generic-global links). Or perhaps they'll give greater wait to .eu based clicks as votes.

There are any number of ways to adjust the complex search result forumlas. Google is *not* the only game in town, even if they have been the best at it so far.

Don't playa-hate, Googlefanbois! See what Quaero comes up with, first. Hell, even dare to TRY it! :o

Vive le concurrence!

I hope they change the name

[DrXym]

No one is going to have the foggiest idea how to type quero, queero, quato, kumquat, kuato or whatever the hell it is into their addrees bar.

Re:I think it's called "independence".

[bvwj]

Q:Why re-invent the wheel?
A:Ego

Also, it's not European companies, it's a European govenrment subsidising European companies.

"...making plans for..."

[Weaselmancer]

igital Media is reporting that French President Jacques Chirac is making plans for a European search engine called "Quaero" to rival US internet companies such as Yahoo and Google.

"Making plans for" is a long, long way from delivering anything. I'm betting that once they start to realize the scope of what they're suggesting, they will change their tune a bit. Or at least scale back the idea somewhat. A google that understands audio and video?

Good luck though, because after all it's saying "why not" that makes change happen - but I think they'll be surprised when they realize the magnitude of their undertaking. Underestimating Google is a classic internet blunder.

Re:Why Is This in Politics??!!

[undeadly]

Yet, this story has nothing to do with the US or politics really. What the EU does shouldn't be in this section.

In this you are very wrong. This is all about politics: get control of vital resources. EU views USA with Bush II in power with deep scepticism, and tries to wrestle as much control as they can since USA has become sort of unreliable. Quite simply, enemies of USA is scared more than ever and close allies are apprehensive. Those that thinks this is good are fools (not that I suggest that you thinks so).

Re:Erm, vapourware anyone?

[general_re]

...and, erm, that's it.

Well, not exactly. If the EU is going to be shitting out money like a broken slot machine, it remains for you and I to figure out how we can get a piece of this. I'm certain that, given the proper funding, I can help them solve the technical obstacles before them However, for deeply complicated reasons (it's complicated) much of my research will need to be conducted in places like Bali and the Bahamas and so forth.

Re:I think it's called "independence".

[undeadly]

Also, it's not European companies, it's a European govenrment subsidising European companies.

This aptly describes US defence and areospace industry.

Doomed to failure and obscurity

[MetalliQaZ]

Putting together a project like that simply because they don't want to use commercial offerings based in the United States is stupid. Without solid motivation, ingenuity and demand, it is doomed to fail.

-d

Re:Also in the news:

[bombadillo]

Japan to develop it's own cars... oh wait

Re:I think it's called "independence".

[massivefoot]

Well Galileo is important for two key reasons. Firstly, it's far more accuarte then GPS (on the order of 1m rather than 4-5m). Secondly, GPS is controlled by the Pentagon, they can switch it off (or, more likely, encrypt the signals so they can only be recieved by military personel) whenever they like. Galileo will be under civilian control. There was also talk of it including a relay system for distress signals.

Anyway, back on-topic, "Quaero" is intended to be able to search images and sound. I assume that doesn't just mean search text associated with them, as Google does. Searching an actual image or sound is a very complex procedure to do on the scale of the internet. If you want to see where this technology is at the moment try http://shape.cs.princeton.edu/search.html. It's fun to play with, and maybe even practical for searching, say, an engineering database, but it's a quite primative technology. So no, they aren't second rate, nor doing what "the Americans have done".

Let's make a bet

[dada21]

Take people with the same energy as those who work for the DMV, and put them up against people with the same energy as those who work for your average car dealer.

Train both sets of people to become software developers.

Let's bet on the outcome. Public programmers are shams just like public workers in any public office. Cronying at best, lazy worthless animals at worst.

How Europeans continually think that they can compete by removing competition and giving it to government is beyond me.

Re:Let's make a bet

[Mindjiver]

Yeah, that is true

I was mostly speaking of the french political elite which does seem to have no idea what they are doing. I would recommend them to read Frédéric Bastiat ;)

How much will they have to block.

[DAldredge]

Since most of Europe has 'hate speech' laws, how much of the net will this search engine be forced to block?

Say what?

[Mindjiver]

When has a government ever provided a service like this that is better and cheaper than what the market would have produced?

Yeah why must hollywood remake french movies?

[SmallFurryCreature]

Why did Nasa go into space when the russians had already done it? Why do anything if somebody else has already done it.

The following bit of info may shock some people so please, little kids leave the room, adults brace youreselve.

GOOGLE SUCKS AS A SEARCH ENGINE

Anyone still around? Good, we judge google by its peers and its peers are the totall crappers so by comparison google looks pretty good. BUT imagine that the people at google had thought "Oh, there already is a search engine no need to make another." We would still be using altavista or something.

Google is fairly good at returning pages regarding obscure linux error messages. When however your search should include words in common usage or possible of a retail product or god forbid be associated in anyway with the adult industry then you are floundering in page after page of crap results.

There is an even worse problem. Despite all what the fanboys will tell you Google is a business. A business that now not just provides search and ads but is becoming a content broker itself.

Could google one day prefer its own pages over others? For now the opposite it seems, I can't get google to return its own videos that it sells BUT some goverments might feel that internet search has become such an important tool that there is some importance to having an alternative to just depending on the US.

America is a funny country, ever since WW2 america has been complaining that it has to do foot the bill for the entire world defence. Europe thinks of creating a european army and the US gets upset. US taxpayer pay for the free GPS of the entire world and they complain. EU makes it own version and americans get upset.

Here is a suggestion for americans, you run your country your way and we run ours our way.

What you are missing is that not every goverment has the same motives. Perhaps some feel that not being a slave to america is a good thing. Since you aren't paying for it with your taxes what business is it of yours?

New search engine capitulates

[wardk]

I understand the new French search engine has already surrendered to the German engine.

You mean india surely

[SmallFurryCreature]

The tech industry in america is floundering. Oh sure there are some success stories just check Apple, an all american product. Wich state is China in anyway?

But I got a suggestion for any eu citizen who thinks the US is heaven on earth. Emigrate. It is actually fairly easy provided you got some half decent job skills and money. No you are not allowed to say anything bad about US immigration policy, remember, your a US fanboy.

1. Pff, I link to it once and that is it. I can always google for it

2. I rather they spend it on this then on a war.

3. Perhaps a search engine that does not bow to the Chinese goverment in the name of the almighty dollar?

4. Yeah, because the top cellphone company is european and all your pc's are made in the US. No I rather we keep our model. So do the majority of EU voters. EU socialist, US capatalist. Move to location of your choice.

Re:You mean india surely

[F_Scentura]

"Not that Google in France or Germany would allow you to, either."

What the hell are you talking about?

http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=nazi&btnG=Goog le-Suche&meta=
http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=Nazi&btnG=Rech erche+Google&meta=

Re:You mean india surely

[lbrandy]

The tech industry in america is floundering. Oh sure there are some success stories just check Apple, an all american product. Wich state is China in anyway?

It grew 16% last year. Instead, let's talk about Microsoft and Google. Those two companies compare favorably to most Europeon nations, on their own. But let's not silly facts get in the way of your ramblings.

2. I rather they spend it on this then on a war.

Awesome. Here's a bit of logic for you. "This is a good idea because I don't like America and they spend money on a war. This costs money, therefore it is good." That's grade A bullshit.

3. Perhaps a search engine that does not bow to the Chinese goverment in the name of the almighty dollar?

Do we really need to talk about the bullshit the French government does for it's almighty Franc? How about Nazi references? Be honest, wouldn't you be bitching just as much if google -hadn't- respected the wishes of China, and then you could say "Imperiliast America and google imposiing it's will on other nations for the almighty dollar". This is your best steaming pile, yet.

4. Yeah, because the top cellphone company is european and all your pc's are made in the US. No I rather we keep our model. So do the majority of EU voters. EU socialist, US capatalist. Move to location of your choice.

This is the best one yet. Clearly you refer to Nokia. A company that is #1 because it competes in the free market with no government benefits at all. And this is your evidence supporting "socialism". Isn't that... ironic? Err no, wait... It's just plain wrong.

Re:You mean india surely

[ostiguy]

Do you honestly expect Europe, the Europe that is seriously considering lifting its arms embargo against China, to not have its search engine bow to the whims of the Chinese government?

Re:You mean india surely

[WhiteWolf666]

It's more sophisticated that you might think:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/google/
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php /1488031

Notice:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=nazi&btnG=Goog le-Suche&meta=
Ergebnisse 1 - 10 von ungefähr 28.300.000 für nazi. (0,03 Sekunden)
http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&ie=ISO-8859-1&q= nazi&btnG=Rechercher&meta=
Résultats 1 - 10 sur un total d'environ 28 300 000 pour nazi. (0,05 secondes)
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en- us&q=nazi&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Results 1 - 10 of about 29,900,000 for nazi [definition]. (0.04 seconds)

See the search count numbers? Don't blame it on language. Lets search for Nazi in ... Japan:
http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=Nazi&btnG=%CF%EE% E8%F1%EA+%E2+Google&lr=
Nazi 29,900,000 1 - 10 (0.05 )

Neat, huh?

Keep in mind, unless you specify google to focus on your language, the search results should be _exactly_ the same across local sites. Except if they tamper with the results, which both Google and Yahoo do for Germany and France.

Research on Similar experiences with china:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/

Sadly, you can't test the Chinese version from outside China. cyberlaw sometimes has a proxy running in China that will allow you to test it, but its currently down. A google filters those results based upon whether your IP block is Chinese or not.

Here's someone's test. You don't have to believe it, I guess:
http://www.dit-inc.us/report/google200409/google.h tm

Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_words_blocked _by_search_engines_in_Mainland_China

Interestingly enough, looks like our Congress criters may be trying to change this behavior:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6026733.html

Re:I think it's called "independence".

[CptNerd]

All Capitalist Warmongering "companies" are Running-dog Lackeys of the Imperialist Western Military-Industrial Complex.

Boy, you sure didn't pay enough attention in Dialectics, huh?

Not an EU project

[brpr]

Typical for Slashdot to get this wrong. This isn't an EU project. It's a collaboration between the French and German governments (and in fact they are only collaborating to encourage French and German companies to develop a search engine).

You all laugh, but...

[SuperKendall]

The real reason is to filter out certain results on the query "French Military History".

A funny question on the face of it but a very serious one if you think about it. What is to stop a government built search engine from tweaking the results just a bit to elimate embarrasment?

I think governments have no business in entreprises that involve shaping what media citizens see.

And for those paranoid about NSA apying, just why do you think they aim to parse the audio in the first place? Hint; It's not primarily so that you can find every audio file in the world that mentions "Tea and Crumpets" in ten seconds flat.

Sheesh

[AceJohnny]

Disclaimer: I'm (mostly) french.

This isn't the first time our dear (cough) beloved (gak) President presses for a catch-up plan in the digital world. Remember he started a project to digitize our paper legacy, in an attempt to counter Google's similar but english-language project.

Now I can vaguely undestand the motivation behind such a move: present a counter force against english-language cultural domination. (considering how China is growing, I'm not sure american culture is the one to be feared in the coming century). This *is* a cultural problem on the internet. I'd rather we all speak a common language, but to each his own.

Maybe he's trying to get his name in the history books for starting such projects. People tend to try that when they get to that age. I could understand that too.

Of course, this project would be in direct competition with Google, such as it's presented. It strikes me as basic economic common sense that a trans-european politically-led project has not a snowball's chance in hell in any market competition.

Maybe as an academic project?...

EU has self-esteem issues

[Stan Vassilev]

First they felt bad US owns the backbone of Internet so they stepped up to control it and/or make their own "European Internet".

Now that it didn't quote work our, they decided to settle for the next big thing, which is have their own "European Search Engine".

What the hell is that? A joke? And I actually live in Europe so it hurts to say this. I'd be proud if an European company comes up with "the next Google" but coming from the French government it comes up as a "me too" behaviour.

Why Google Won and Chirac Won't

[billstewart]

Search engine dominance isn't an embedded infrastructure contest like railroad dominance - it's a popularity contest that can change in a heartbeat if something better comes along. Google became popular and crowded out its competition because it was a fundamentally friendlier engine, not in the sense of having syntactic sugar and flashy decorations like Hotwired, but in the sense of producing highly relevant results up front instead of mixing them randomly through the 50,000 matches for your search terms, indexing more of the web than most of the competitors, and being lightning fast as well, which it could do partly because its interface was lean and clean. Google as a business has some stickiness because of its popularity, which enabled it to raise enough cash in the market to hire the best and brightest to do new cool stuff, and they keep adding more cool stuff, and maybe some of that will add some business relationship stickiness that will keep other people around in addition to the popularity contest, but the fundamentals are still about having the quality it takes to maintain the popularity.

Perhaps Chirac can win part of the popularity contest in France by getting some academics and engineers to produce a service that's elegant, efficient, and French, something with the spirit of Eiffel as opposed to Inspector Clouseau or Derrida or De Gaulle or Sartre. Or perhaps he can pull off another Minitel - lightweight and pretty lame but good enough to get the job done given the lack of competition. And hopefully he can produce something that provides really good access to the information produced by the French government. But bureaucratic fiat isn't the way to produce popularity - you need a combination of luck, really really good technical skills, willingness to experiment, and a deep understanding of what your potential customers might want, and usually bureaucratic fiat produces things like bureaucrats and Fiats.

Re:Why Google Won and Chirac Won't

[frost22]

Perhaps Chirac can win part of the popularity contest in France

Forget it. I'm a European myself, and I've seen that kind of projects. Plenty of them. They all fails, especially the French ones. There is a whole scene of companies that do nothing than burning through European subsidies, project after project after project. They complete them, boast about them, and then bury them. That works especially well when you add in that Gallic talent for just accidently and by chance always hiring well connected french companies only in European projects.

Look who's in the boat here - that reads like a who is who of the Public Fundinds Burning Society. Deutsche Telekom, France Telekom, both fornmer state monopolists, Thomson, french electronics giant and perpetual receiver of ample state subsidies. The rest is probably of similar calibre.

and usually bureaucratic fiat produces things like bureaucrats and Fiats

While your intent here is right and the wordplay is cute, that's deeply offensive to a great Italian car tradition that is way more succesfull and receptive to their customers needs than any EU buerocrats pet project ever could be.