Ecosia and Qwant agree to launch European Search Perspective, a search indexing initiative aimed at moving away from reliance on Google and Bing
Germany's Ecosia and France's Qwant, search engine operators, have announced a partnership to build a European search index that will reduce reliance on American Big Tech companies. The two companies have jointly founded a startup, European Search Perspective, which will primarily improve search results in German and French.
Ecosia and Qwant join forces to develop European search index - Better Web
Ecosia, Qwant partner on search engine tech to counter Google's power
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/12/ecosia-qwant-partner-on-search-engine-tech-to-counter-googles-power.html
Ecosia and Qwant, two European search engines, join forces on an index to shrink reliance on Big Tech | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/11/ecosia-and-qwant-two-european-search-engines-join-forces-on-building-an-index-to-shrink-reliance-on-big-tech/
Both Ecosia and Qwant use Bing APIs to display search results, with Ecosia relying on Google in addition to Bing. The companies aim to reduce this dependency and roll out search products incorporating generative AI to reduce operational costs.
Specifically, it collects search results from various search engines and builds its own search index from scratch, making it easier to match users' search terms with search results. The big difference between it and Google and others is that it places importance on 'privacy,' and it does not personalize based on users' hobbies, preferences, or search history.
Qwant CEO Oliver Abecassis said: 'We are a European company and we need to build technology that ensures that decisions of third parties, such as Microsoft increasing the cost of its search APIs, do not put our business at risk. This is not about America or American companies, it's about our business and our corporate sovereignty.'
European Search Perspective will be owned 50:50 by Ecosia and Qwant and is expected to launch its search index for Ecosia and Qwant by Q1 2025. It will initially focus on German and French, with the possibility of adding English, and may add more European languages if momentum builds.
Christian Kroll of Ecosia said, 'Europe is highly dependent on the United States in terms of technology. With Donald Trump being elected as US president, geopolitical tensions may increase. The US and Europe want to always remain strong allies, but we don't know what will happen to each other, so I think it's important to maintain data sovereignty,' emphasizing the strategic value of introducing a European search infrastructure.
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