Twenty-three European private firms led by Thomson will receive €99 million (US$152 million) from the French government to help develop a European rival to Google. The European Commission approved the funding after finding that the research and cultural benefits of the project – called QUAERO (Latin for “I seek”) – will offset any market dominance gained by Thomson. The investment, however, only covers approximately half of the estimated costs of the project; the project is estimated to cost €199 million (US$306 million) over the five first years. QUAERO aims to be a multimedia search engine that will work across all online digital media platforms including mobile phones, PCs, set-top-boxes and handheld devices. The engine will index content in several languages and will provide content management tools for media producers to promote their material.

Last July, the EC cleared a decision by the German government to fund the German arm of the project, named THESEUS. An Associated Press report states that money will fund ‘icebreaker’ companies – Siemens AG, SAP AG, Deutsche Thomson oHG and EMPOLIA GmbH, owned by Bertelsmann AG – to kickstart research. The aid will later spread to smaller firms. The EC says the overall project’s success will be crucial in allowing European technology companies to compete with the dominance of the US in the digital media sector.