The developers of the French Qwant and the Berlin-based Ecosia search engines join forces with the aim of creating an advanced European search index that can be a competitive alternative to the solutions of big tech companies. The duo behind the European Search Perspective (EUSP), created with a 50-50 ownership split, believe that the partnership can help them innovate in their own solutions and reduce exposure to indexes provided by Microsoft Bing and Google. Both European services currently rely on Bing’s search API, while Ecosia also uses Google’s search results.
Smaller companies striving to operate more independently are also motivated by rising API costs, especially since Microsoft made access significantly more expensive last year. Of course, neither Ecosia nor Qwant would completely abandon the use of Bing or Google products, but with their own index they could manage to diversify the basic technologies supporting their services, which would reduce their operating costs.
An index (or search index) is a database in which search engines store data collected from web pages during indexing, and search engines use the index to compile a list of search result pages. The indexing tailored to Europeans thus enables the search results to include content that is more relevant to locals.
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Microsoft and Google, which together own about 95 percent of the global search industry outside of China, are unlikely to be too shaken by losing some of the licensing revenue. But the search methods also changed along the way, ChatGPT, TikTok and Reddit became more attractive, and with the appearance of generative AI in search, smaller alternatives became more attractive to users. This may encourage larger companies to accelerate their investments in regional development.
Both alternative search engines have already started experimenting with the possibilities inherent in generative artificial intelligence, but instead of developing their own models, they plan to use the APIs of the large language models (LLM) of the major platforms in the future. At the same time, the duo leaves open the possibility for other European companies to join the initiative, either later as clients or looking for the possibility of external financing.
The combination of generative AI models and up-to-date information gathered through search queries will be key to improving the usefulness of the search product, according to the parties. The index is expected to start serving search engine traffic in France in the first quarter of next year for Ecosia and for Qwant later in the year. After that, the product will be expanded by the end of 2025 with a “significant part” of traffic in Germany, and English will be the third language, which may be followed by support for additional languages depending on interest.
With the advent of AI tools, the demand for the search index has also changed, according to Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, Bing and Google are making it increasingly difficult for other parties to gain access. The initiative is given impetus by the fact that the European regulatory environment has also changed over the past years and seeks to promote local technological innovation in order to strengthen the bloc’s autonomy. With the entry into force of the DMA, this period may be the right time to launch such an initiative.
Ecosia can report about 20 million monthly active users worldwide, while Qwant has about 6 million users in France.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
