Ecosia and Qwant, two search engines that compete with Google, today announced a partnership to create a European search index and reduce their dependence on major US technology companies.
The two Internet search companies have agreed to a joint venture, called European Search Perspective or EUSP, with ownership split 50-50 between the two companies. The goal is to launch in France in early 2025, and it aims to serve "enhanced" search results in French and German.
Ecosia is based in Berlin, while Qwant is based in Paris. Qwant is a privacy-focused search engine that promises not to track users or resell their personal data. Ecosia's search engine focuses on sustainability, and is committed to planting a tree for every 50 searches on its platform.
The search infrastructure is what powers our access to the web, but it is currently primarily controlled by Google, the dominant search engine with over 90% of the global market share. Even alternative search engines like Ecosia and Qwant have to rely on existing technology from companies like Microsoft to deliver search results.
The new project is said to have been made possible, following new technology competition rules in the European Union. The Digital Markets Act, which went into effect earlier this year, requires big tech companies that it calls “gatekeepers” to offer fair and reasonable access to their platforms.
In the case of Google, the company is required under the DMA (Digital Markets Act) to share data useful for training a search model.
Currently, alternative search engines such as Ecosia, Qwant and DuckDuckGo they do not have their own support infrastructure. The new venture will enable them to build their own search indexes from scratch, aggregating results from a combination of different search engines.
Ecosia and Qwant say the new search service will aim to be "privacy first," using Qwant's redesigned 2023 technologies.
