Ecosia and Qwant, two European search engines competing with Google, announced a partnership on Tuesday to create a European search index, aiming to lessen their reliance on major U.S. tech firms.
This joint venture, called the European Search Perspective (EUSP), is owned equally by both companies and aims to deliver enhanced French and German search results, with an expected launch in France in early 2025.
Headquartered in Berlin, Ecosia is known for its commitment to sustainability, planting one tree for every 50 searches made on its platform. Paris-based Qwant emphasizes privacy, ensuring it doesn’t track users or sell their data.
Currently, Google controls over 90% of the global search market, dominating search infrastructure worldwide.
Even alternative search engines like Ecosia and Qwant depend on other companies, like Microsoft, to provide search results.
However, Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll explained that new European Union competition regulations, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), have opened doors for this project.
The DMA, which took effect this year, requires tech “gatekeepers” to allow fair and reasonable access to their platforms, mandating Google to share data beneficial for training search models.
The decision to develop a European search index addresses a significant limitation for alternative search engines like Ecosia, Qwant, and DuckDuckGo, which traditionally haven’t developed their own backend infrastructure.
Through this venture, they will build their own search index from scratch, sourcing results from a mix of engines.
Ecosia, which shifted last year to using a combination of Google and Bing results, will benefit from having its own infrastructure.
The new search index, described as “privacy-first,” will utilize technology from Qwant, which was revamped in 2023.
Ecosia and Qwant will both use the index internally, while also making it accessible to other independent search engines and tech companies.
This move comes as alternative search providers face rising fees from Microsoft for access to its Bing Search API, which provides essential backend infrastructure for their services.
Qwant CEO Olivier Abecassis highlighted the importance of this European initiative, noting that relying on third parties like Microsoft could endanger their business when API access costs increase.
He emphasized that the move is not anti-American, but instead about securing European business independence. Abecassis will also serve as CEO of EUSP, which has not yet sought external investment.
Ecosia’s Kroll noted Europe’s heavy reliance on U.S. technology and pointed out the potential risks, referencing disruptions in energy supply due to Russia’s cut-off of gas to Europe.
Such dependency, he warned, could be risky for Europe’s technological needs, especially during geopolitical tensions.
The collaboration also aims to provide a “transparent and secure data pool” for new AI technologies, which are likely to play a growing role in search.
With the shift toward generative AI, Kroll expects search providers to become more protective of their resources, given the importance of having a robust index in an AI-driven search.
Generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have increasingly drawn users away from Google, challenging its dominance in information retrieval.
New players like Perplexity have entered the market with their own AI-driven alternatives. Google has responded by integrating its Gemini large language model into its search product to keep pace with these advances.
