The latest news out of the center of global culture and doggie-do in the streets claimed the in-development Quaero search engine aims to challenge Google for search superiority.

"Quaero" means "to search" in Latin, the AP article said. French president Jacques Chirac said last week, "We must meet the global challenge of the American giants Google and Yahoo."

While upsets can certainly happen, Google has proven a tough foe to overcome in the search arena. Yahoo, Microsoft, and others have tried, but Google's relevance has kept it ahead of the pack. In the US, search companies battle for second place, not first, no matter how their PR departments choose to spin it otherwise.

The minds behind Quaero have bold ambitious plans but no real details. Their list of desired features looks, well, Googley:

Competition does benefit the overall market. Those who grumble about Google's seeming lack of focus in the wake of its release of software bundle Google Pack may welcome an effort that forces Google to keep an eye on the relevance of its search results.

Who knows? Maybe Quaero will be the next great thing in search technology. Someday they may even release an alpha version of it, too.

Non-American SE's can compete with Google & Yahoo. Unless I'm mistaken, Baidu has a larger market share in China than Google.

The article you quoted mentioned that the name, Quaero was awkward. I think that's an understatement. The word "Google" is odd, but even when it was obscure it was easy to remember and spell. I have a hard time believing Quaero will be so easy for Americans, Australians, Brits, Japanese, and other large markets to remember. Additionally, many Americans have an aversion to anything French, so that's going against them, too.

The only way anyone (American company or otherwise) new will be able to put Google on the ropes is for them to offer something completely new and innovative. Even then, they will have to survive the attempts by the larger SEs to buy them (and their ideas) before someone else does.

__________________
SEO Firefox Extension | Free Link Development Tool | New SUSE Linux Users

And some of us have a real affinity for anything French! If they have a chic, smart interface, and give good results, I would think the International angle could be a huge asset, even here in America.

I'm sure the French can build a great moteur de cherche. They can then bolt it into the minitel formaciel and all the ordinateurs portable.

Anyway, as a Brit, I suggest that the extra £2 billion a year that the French recently screwed from Tony Blair should go towards the project.

__________________
Simply Clicks | SEO | SEO Training| Pay Per Click Advertising | Search Engine Powered Marketing

Anyone can compete. Doesn't mean Google won't put the kind of beat-down on them normally seen in a video game boss level played in 'god mode'.

China's not the issue here, it's Europe, and Google is very strong in Europe. Competition is good, and as has been pointed out elsewhere, Thomson did develop SingingFish, which AOL bought...and will likely replace with Truveo.

dburdon - do I detect a slight hint of anti-frenchism?

Is there any country in the world that genuinely likes France??

__________________
Irish Wallpaper / Photos / Desktop Backgrounds | Irish Myspace Layouts | Make Money From Photos Online

Anything? Well okay… But anyway… if there was ever any fear in Google’s heart [snicker], I bet they were just tickled at Chirac coming out and declaring war on them because they are American. If it had been Blair, well then the PR machine would have to be released. But this is the French. Proposed European partners have a lot more at risk than a billion or two Euros, by hosing a relationship with G or Y! for a coulda woulda, mighta unseen product as yet unproduced product by Chirac and company who didn’t have the foresight to go beg, buy, or otherwise get the .com name before they told Chirac to “go sick’em!” These are the same people who’ve tried for years to market “courriel” in France and it’s all but failed even amongst French people who generally like their government. Now Chirac is ordering up this same mighty war machine against Google and Yahoo? Okay!

It was rather humorous though that Chirac comes out with this “WE MUST…” and referencing a Franco-German techno-pact. Meanwhile, all the proposed German firms like Deutsche Telekom and Siemens are saying, “Who’s this WE you are talking about kimosabe?”

Now I would be a whole lot more worried about it if Chirac had declared war on WebCrawler [snicker-again]. That company is ripe for taking down and the French might just be the folks that could do it. What are we into now? Countries going to war with companies? After that little shot of hot air across the bow, I'm wondering if Cheney's planned hunting trip with the president of Nestlé is still on. Perhaps Congress should declare war on Perrier, “Cuz we gots to protect R ‘Mercan water. Bobby Boucher and Mamma is dependin’ on us!” Yeppereebob! You know it’s NOT like the French don’t do any business over here.

The company that owns the .com domain is right here in Charlotte where I live and I know of the company. They might have thought that had a real deal if some guy with a French accent called and offered them $50K for the domain name, take it or leave it. I think I will drop them a note on Monday and tell them their stock just went up by a few million, just in case they haven’t heard that the entire credibility of the French government as put on the line by Chirac is now in their hands. Because you know guys… you could produce a truly artificial intelligence search engine capable of reading minds and delivering SERPS telepathically, but it isn't going to fly anywhere else except France with a .fr extension... well MAYBE Quebec, but the ROI from these two is more likely to be measured in millennia than years. And now with Chirac promising French backing and a budget of €1 billion, there is some money to be made here. You just KNOW there are some (Thomson owned Quaero.fr) guys that would like to call Chirac and tell him, “thanks for the support, but shut the hell up before you cost us more money.”

Again humorous, is that after Chirac, the Quaero folks put a password protection on the site because of folks hitting it, but they didn’t do it right and folks were finding Google cache. I cannot figure out which is funnier, the fact these people who are going to kick Google to the curb cannot password protect a website, or that they are using Google’s data. Since that didn’t work, they’ve just put up domain reg links. Inspector Kluso – where are you? I think the Brits need to keep the French out of the Monty Python video cabinet. If they don’t, someone over there is gonna put out an eye.