by Key Takeaways
- To lessen dependency on Google and Microsoft, Ecosia and Qwant have teamed up to develop a search index headquartered in Europe.
- The EUSP partnership seeks to promote European digital sovereignty and enhance search results in France and Germany by 2025.
- The research is made possible by the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which requires data sharing for the creation of search models.
Ecosia and Qwant revealed a collaboration on November 12 to establish a European search index to lessen their dependence on large US IT corporations.
Since Google now owns more than 90% of the market for web searches, competitors like Ecosia and Qwant are dependent on Microsoft’s technology to produce relevant search results.
Qwant, France’s privacy-focused search engine, and Ecosia, a Berlin-based nonprofit that funds climate initiatives, are collaborating to create a European search index in order to address this. Under the direction of Olivier Abecassis, CEO of Qwant, the two established European Search Perspective (EUSP), a 50/50 collaboration with headquarters in Paris.
By early 2025, EUSP intends to strengthen European digital sovereignty, provide an independent search option, and improve search engine results in France and Germany. Additionally, it aims to lessen dependency on the search indexes of Bing and Google and establish the foundation for next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence.
Both businesses now use Bing’s APIs, and Ecosia also depends on Google’s results, but they have no plans to stop using these services completely. Rather, they want to create their own index to cut expenses and aid in product development, particularly as GenAI technologies gain traction.
The new privacy-focused search index, which is based on Qwant’s 2023 makeover, will be used by both businesses. They also point out that other search engines can join EUSP to help create the index, which makes it a reliable user tool and a useful resource for European companies.
Using EU DMA for an Independent Search Index, Ecosia, and Qwant
The announcement coincides with growing Microsoft prices for Ecosia and Qwant to access the Bing Search API. Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, attributes the project’s success to the EU’s new digital antitrust laws.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect this year, targets Big Tech “gatekeepers” and mandates that they support third-party payment methods, let users select their preferred browser, and permit alternative app stores. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, and Booking are among the seven gatekeeper corporations that the EU has designated by May 2024, spanning 24 services covered by the DMA. Google is required by the DMA to provide the data needed to create search models.
