The French government is preparing to give EUR 99 M or roughly USD 152 M to twenty-three private European firms. Among these firms, the leader is Thomson. The reason for the money? They will develop a competitor of Google that is distinctly European. This project has been nicknamed the Quaero project and the European Commission believes that such a project will have significant cultural and research benefit for European countries. These benefits will surely be worth the big amount of money given to these firms.

France is not the only government shelling out money. The German government, in July 2007, also gave 120 million Euros to one segment of the Quaero project, nicknamed Theseus. The firms leading this research and development effort include Siemens and Thomson-Germany.

With the European Union bringing in money to develop the European version of Google, it remains to be seen how they will build their online edifice from the ground up. Google has had important headstart and it has developed for several years now. In the next five years, the expenses of the Quaero project will double and the initial investment now will have to be added.

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