The French oxymoron called Quaero
Posted on May 10, 2006 at 13:36 UK time in Business, Europe, Politics, Technology, Web
In January, I wrote about Quaero, a planned European multimedia search engine, the answer to Google and brainchild of the French government.
My own thoughts about it were expressed thus:
[...] The idea of Quaero is a terrific one. Yet I can’t imagine anything more oxymoronic than “government-backed search engine.”
Loic Le Meur - a Frenchman - has posted a withering commentary on this oxymoron, lambasting the French government in the process.
Headline points from Loic’s 10 reasons why the French search engine will fail:
- Can’t spell it.
- Centralized.
- Secret versus beta.
- No buzz, no adoption.
- A galaxy of actors who compete to get the subventions and don’t get much noticed for their latest web innovations.
- Not really international.
- A neverending story.
- Not enough euros.
- Subventions euros are not worth venture capital euros.
- Google is a thousand startups
See Loic’s post for the excruciating details.
2 Comment(s)
By
Rod Large on May 24, 2006 | Reply
I wanted to ask you about this yesterday at ZeitGeist event! Great presentation…thanks
But seriously…….why would the German and French governments invest in a search engine?
Do they see Google as a threat? On what basis?
regards
Rod
By
neville on May 24, 2006 | Reply
Thanks Rod. I wasn’t at Zeitgeist, though but Loic was.
Re Quaero, Loic’s post really says it all. Maybe the govts do see Google as a threat although I think it’s more to do with French national pride or somesuch notion. Expensive pride.