This is an important initiative in the world of search engines. Qwant and Ecosia, the French and German tools, are joining forces in a new joint venture to create their own European search index. The idea is to create an alternative to those offered by Google and Microsoft. Explanations.
Capitalizing on the opportunities of AI
In detail, this new company is called European Search Perspective. Each entity will account for 50% of its capital. Remember that at present, Qwant relies on Bing’s API to respond to its users’ queries, while Ecosia relies on that of Google.
If the two search engines will continue to use the latter, the idea is nevertheless to use their own solution to reduce their dependence. Especially since API prices have increased last year, which represents a danger.
This “made in Europe” search index should also support the development of new AI tools. Quoted by TechCrunch, Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, underlines: “There is also a unique moment where you can use this type of index to create a very different experience – using generative AI to create a different experience – and we don’t want to be limited in the use of this technology. »
He adds about the combination of search engines and AI tools:
Google decided to have two strong products, but not to mix them. And I can understand when I look at the business model inherited from Google. But in the future something will happen between these technologies and that’s what we want to experience. And for this, any player on the market must have access to research technology.
For the moment, the two organizations have not revealed their investments in this joint venture. In any case, they do not intend to waste any time, since, according to our colleagues, this index should begin to be used by the two search engines in France next year.
The synergy between Qwant and Ecosia, which have 6 and 20 million users respectively, is an asset for developing this technology. As Olivier Abecassis, CEO of the French service on the specialized site, indicates: “The more technology is used, the more money you can invest, but also the more data you get. One of the reasons Google is so strong is that it relies on tons of data. »
A winning bet for Ecosia and Qwant?
While the success of this initiative is not guaranteed, it would have a good chance of resulting in success. TechCrunch spoke with Peter Popov, an engineer who worked for 15 years on the Russian search engine Yandex, and today serves as vice-president of advertising on the social network VK.
He estimates the cost of creating such an index at $10 million. He adds that advances in AI are also making it easier to produce relevant results for search engines. So the advantage of engines like Google would no longer be as great, although it still benefits from its gigantic user base and ecosystem.
