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Europe
Europe (Chiraq and Schroeder) seeks its search engine
2006-01-19
BERLIN Germany and France are negotiating plans to inject E1 billion to E2 billion over five years into a public-private initiative to develop a series of sophisticated digital tools including a next-generation Internet search engine, a project organizer said.
So far this sounds like fifth generation computers from Japan
The program, called Quaero, would be paid for by the French and German governments and technology companies in both countries, including Thomson, Siemens, France Télécom and Deutsche Telekom. Philippe Paban, a spokesman for Thomson, which is leading the French effort, said Quaero's organizers might be ready to announce details of the project by next week.
Will this product be minitel compatible?
Quaero, which means "I seek subsidies" in Latin, still faces several hurdles, including scrutiny of its public funding by the European Commission and uncertainty in Germany, where no single company has taken the lead and a coalition government elected in November has yet to publicly endorse the project. Organizers are also fighting some skeptics who maintain that Quaero could waste taxpayers' money in academic research that produces no commercial benefit.

The project, conceived in April by President Jacques Chirac of France and Gerhard Schröder, then the chancellor of Germany, is an attempt by two of Europe's largest economies to develop a local challenger to Google, the California-based search engine, which spent $327 million on research and development in the first nine months of 2005.
No question the Euros can overcome Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and whom ever else is investing in a segment likely to be saturated before they complete their government make work project.
In a speech this month laying out his 2006 agenda, Chirac spoke to those concerns, saying: "We must take up the challenge posed by the American giants Google and Yahoo. For that, we will launch a European search engine, Quaero."
Posted by:Nimble Spemble

#2  I'm sure it will be at least as successful as the Japanese Government's 50 billion yen Fifth Generation Project.
Posted by: DMFD   2006-01-19 23:37  

#1  If the project was conceived by Chiraq and Schroeder, then it is just a big money hole. Chiraq, especially, knows how to come up with schemes to piss away spend the public purse.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2006-01-19 18:33  

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