EU Google Competitor Gets $165 million Kick Start

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1. gilltots
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 2:59 am

   damn…that is one hell of an injection. puts barry bonds to shame.

   i have a hunch it won’t turn out so well though. since it’s a “project” rather than a startup, does that mean there’s no equity? who would get the profits, assuming there are any?

   p.s. my condolences for you guys having to read the ooma comments, i feel your pain!

2. Marino
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:02 am

   I don’t think that any of these well funded projects will succeed, they’re just wasting their money. In the end a small team will make a killing project, just like the Google guys did.

3. Aravind
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:03 am

   Silly! Google is way ahead in search technology or atleast cash in hand to buy out a company that does something cutting edge in this field. Already a number of US firms are working on it and it makes no point if the Europeans did it just because they feared Google being American and is monoplizing Internet Search.

4. Kai
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:26 am

   That is just stupid…

5. visible.mobi
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:29 am

   Google is human, misses earnings…

6. varref
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:31 am

   too much money, too many chiefs, and too much bureaucracy…..

7. Renaud
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:47 am

   As a side note, the century-old statement that France and Germany always disagree on everything has been wrong for the better part of at least 20 years.

   In fact, on most big policy issues and their view of the world, both the heads of states and public opinions have shown very, very common core values.

   If you want to talk about a real rift and differing values within the EU, try : new eastern countries vs France+Germany, or the UK vs well, everybody else

   It’s true however, that both France and Germany have that (probably obsolete) culture of top-down, government-sponsored industrial projects involving the big national champions, and unfortunately very few startups.

8. Martin Wells
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:53 am

   I’m left wondering about the actual value of the technology research being undertaken here. Is this just a challenge for the challenge’s sake. I wonder if it’s just desperation to escape the perceived google dominance before it becomes too ingrained.

9. Duncan Riley
   

   July 20th, 2007 at 3:55 am

   Renaud
   They’re disagreeing over this aren’t they? 20+ years of pretending they like each other doesn’t make up for hundreds of years of prior history. Of course the EU (or the EEC and EC before it) was primarily the result of France and Germany combining together to be stronger (particularly in the face of the Warsaw pact, a economic confederation that countered the Warsaw Pact). As for Britain’s role, I’m always reminded by Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister explaining to Jim Hacker that the Russians weren’t the real enemy of the UK, France was, and 400 years of British Foreign policy has always been focused on that fact

10. Mark Samuels
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:00 am

    At least R&D is taking place. Too many companies scared to fund technology innovation. A recent survey by the European Commission found that Europe’s R&D spending has been declining since 2000, standing at just 1.9 per cent of GDP – and almost half the rate devoted to research investment in China.

11. alexander
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:01 am

    Being a European I think EU overall is a good thing, but this is a perfect example of the things that scares me. If the German or French government think it’s a bright idea (which it isn’t) with such a subsidy thats fine, as long as they spend their own money. But forcing other countries to subsidise their market distortions is not ok. The reason why France and Germany have problems competing (EU overall, Sweden included, have better growth then USA) is because they have too much government intervention.

    EU should focus on the essentials, which is free trade (outside Europe too) and co-operation on crime, environment and other issues where the benefits of co-operation heavily outweighs the problem with giving up authority to Brussel.

    /Alexander (Sweden)

12. Michael
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:48 am

    Duncan,
    re “20+ years of pretending they like each other doesn’t make up for hundreds of years of prior history”:
    a) Germany (as it is known today) did not even exist hundreds of years ago. Usually, it is considered to have been founded 1870 (through, I give you that, a war against France). -> there is no hundred years here
    b) “20+” should rather be since around 1950, no?

    I dont know why you say that Germany and France always disagree. Got some facts to back that up rather than just some anecdotal evidence?

13. Matt Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:51 am

    Michael, I think Duncan is referring to the 1st and 2nd world wars…

    Either way, they have a heck of a lot of work to do with that money.

14. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:57 am

    Well if its a choice between Google, Ze Germans and La France …. I will go for Google.

    Now maybe George W. Bush is reading my e-mails as he speaks, but he isn’t pulling pages out of Google’s results pages like France and Germany do. I somehow doubt he would have any interest in modifiying the results to say put a French or German company up there …

    Government intervention to fund a search engine will lead to more government control of the media … I don’t want my results run by Merkel or Sarcozy … I’m quite happy with Bush reading the occasional search thank you.

    I hope EU approval doesn’t mean the EU is giving any of the funding, what France and Germany want to do with their money is none of my business but if they are taking my money, I will be angry … cheese-eating bureaucrats!

15. Apple
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:19 am

    EU have lot of money. All they want is to get rid off American sick porns, America news propaganda, War with Iraq fabricators, great scam companies, McDonald fats, and great American fats.

    They want something like Yandex. KGB did help them create cool search technology. I think pretty cool search engine.

    For, German and France…They want to built stronger economy than U.S. You don’t actually see fat people in europe. They create the best health care search links in the world. :/

16. Brian
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:29 am

    Yay, government subsidized startup. This will probably turn out like every other government run organization in the history of, well, governments — shitty.

17. Otis Gospodnetic
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:37 am

    Funny, there are always copy-cats in Europe whose main difference is that it’s either *from* Europe or that it is *for* European crowd or some such.
    Bebo? Xing? Ringo? The latest one that I noticed is Netlog (see http://blog.simpy.com/blojsom/.....twork.html for some graphs), formerly known as Facebox (interestingly similar name to another social network, ha?).

18. Daniel
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:41 am

    Ah yes, the famous ‘government can’t do it’-argument. look into how much of the US current prosperity is due to government funding during the cold war.

    What I don’t entirely understand is the fear of a US hegemony. My understanding of the google search algorithm doesn’t include a build in bias for american web sites. In fact, when using the german version of google, the results look… well pretty german. and that’s how it should be. (Let’s just hope that china doesn’t give everyone internet access because then we should better start learning chinese so we can read 80% of the web sites (and yes, I am being sarcastic here)).

    Matt: Let’s just hope Duncan is not referring to the world wars - I am just giving him the benefit of the doubt that he knows those weren’t hundreds of years ago.
    There is a specific difference between ‘disagreement’ and trying to bargain the best for each country. Just look at the recent discussion about EADS and Airbus - sure, it looks like disagreement but primarily it is a power struggle and everyone basically has the same goals in mind.

19. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:58 am

    The point isn’t government can’t do it, its that they really shouldn’t …. a startup has bad odds of succeeding, we all know it … but it doesn’t matter to most people (just the ones involved), when the government bankrolls it … it matters to us all!

    Government funded start-up will have a little less chance because of political interference …

20. Bill Hartzer
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 6:00 am

    Very interesting that the government is getting involved…that would never happen with the US government. Perhaps some politicians might sink some money into it, but you’d never see the US government backing anything. But I wish they would get their act together…

21. Money & frame
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 6:17 am

    Imagine, E.U brought powerset.com and give founders citizenship, housing, etc.

    With $165.8 million — they are planning to buy U.S search engine startup and give them E.U government honor & citizenship.

    U.S will tell to you “No. built your search engine here! I will give you money.”

22. Duncan Riley
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:05 am

    Michael (comment 12)
    the 20 year reference was in relation to another commenter, but if you’re seriously arguing that French/ German relations have always been perfect since WW2, it’s you who needs to learn history, particularly that of the formulative years of the EEC and disputes over things like tarrifs, subsidies etc etc …but all up it’s a moot point: France and Germany have been traditional rivals for 500 years..and even before the formation of the modern German state in the 19th century that rivalry extended to the German Kingdoms as well, or did we forget the Napoleonic Wars and at least half a dozen other wars as well? Indeed, I double checked on Wikipedia, Franco-German enmity dates back to 1516.

23. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:15 am

    But to be fair, no country likes France … most people polled don’t: Brits, Americans, Spanish, Germans … not to forget New Zealanders! Maybe they will bomb Google like they did the ‘Zealander ship?

24. Anonymous CowHerd
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:18 am

    *laughs*

    The government, suing Google, props up a competitor and still claims to be impartial?

25. King Henry XIII
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:22 am

    Sorry to say this, but couldnt you buy Google itself at $165 Million and just move it to Europe?

    Much smarter idea

26. King Henry XIII
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:22 am

    This is King Henry. I retract my earlier statement.

27. Jesse
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:27 am

    Seriously, can you say conflict of interest? Why is their government supporting this? Assuming this will be successful, I would still be furious if I were a EU/German tax-payer.

28. Jean-Michel
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:33 am

    Reading the comments in this post, I really feel part of the Global Village.

    EU VS US, Government VS Private, Globalization, innovation, History, … There should be an open debate! I am sure virtual rotten tomatoes woulf fly but at least people would talk instead of look down upon each other. Why do we need to feel superior to others? The world is complex and nobody is with us or against us …

    By the way, Duncan, I am not sure Wikipedia is the best source for serious History … It’s a wiki after all, not a serious publication. You are probably American and never lived in Europe, neither did some serious talk with French or German to write such things.

    If you ask French and German - I mean the real People in the streets - if they like each other, they will probably say: YES! The second World War ended up 2 generations ago, the political will was very strong to make us (I am French) friends !

    However, read the British tabloids or ask French people in the street what do they think about British Food. Despite being allies in the last century, there is still a lot of hate btw the frogs and the roast beefs (rosbifs in French). As far as I am concerned, this is due to the lack of political will of both nations to make effort and learn how to live with each other. Maybe … There is also a strong divergence about how to organize society.

    Business is driven by profit. Internet would have never exist without the US Army, the CERN … governments !!!

29. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:37 am

    Jesse, I don’t think the EU are paying, they consented.

    Who knows, it would be interesting if this is one of the few start up that works.

    —

    I can’t say I see much wrong with Google right now, when they start making every country follow the US constitution or the War on Terror before they offer search there, maybe I’ll care, but right now … its the best service.

30. Antje Wilsch
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    I love the french. But most of my countrymen do not even if they say they do, and I would guess it’s true vice versa (in heart of hearts). Problems will always arise when it’s “EU” money used for a “German” or “French” company. Old rivalries etc.

    But it’s nice to see some attempts at funding innovation before everything is owned by the US-China-India triangle. The EU can learn a lot from watching the infrastructure that supports innovation in the US, and US and EU can both learn a lot about how government supports innovation via the government by looking at China (and how NOT to do it by looking at India).

31. Geeman
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:49 am

    i agree with the guy who said about getting rid of American spam sites. Will EU create search engine which only available is Europe?

32. Andrew
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 7:54 am

    Governments are not efficient.
    The larger companies are, often the less efficient and less innovative.
    What on earth do they think they’re playing at? More insanity.
    Case closed.

    They would be better splitting up the cash and injecting $5m into 50 interesting european startups doing disruptive things in the space.

33. Anonymous Coward
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:09 am

    Could Theseus be a Google designed by committee? Will it do anything to address Frances political inferiority complex by creating a none English tool…? This is a concept born out of bureaucracy and will never be used by the politicans that sponsor tools they profer. More wasted tax euros.

34. EUsucks
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:23 am

    Some of you asshats are fools to think all the spam sites are american and somehow a magical EU search engine will stop that (wrong on both counts). I’m not going to waste my time elaborating further since the people in question are obviously retarded.

35. slike
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:24 am

    Well there’s goes a pile of cash down the drain. If companies like Siemen’s really believed in this, then they wouldn’t have a problem funding it themselves. They’re certainly big enough.

36. Greg
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:26 am

    This is a typical example of EU-thinking. Rather than creating successful companies organically, they get bureaucratically involved and try to push things from a nationalistic agenda.

37. Geoff
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:27 am

    It is unsurprising that a government-funded intitiative of this nature is coming out of Europe. If EU member states are so determined to challenge US hegemony over the internet, they are much better off focusing on structural reform and improving the business climate.

    I agree that government involvement in this space is unnerving.

38. Andrew Pass
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:32 am

    Wow!! Yesterday Google lost at least 7% and today this. Is it time to sell stock in Google? I’m thinking that the company still has a bright future.

39. wrongstring
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 8:53 am

    GOOGLE NOT LIKE PUNY EURO COMPETITOR….GOOGLE CRUSH EURO COMPETITOR WITH SUPERIOR SEARCH TECH.

40. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:09 am

    I wouldn’t mind a Euro competitor, it won’t come out of France or Germany with policy like this.

    The UK and Ireland have the language advantage and their legislation is free market … also nations like Switzerland (not EU ), Sweden, Norway and Denmark seem pretty innovative … the ones you’ll probably not see anything out of is those reluctant to open the markets (France, Germany) aswell as Spain, Portugal, Italy and the socialist Czechs … Romania and Bulgaria have a better shot, they have done more in the 6 months they’ve been in to liberalize markets than France and Germany have done in years … they flout EU rules to push their nationalist, protectionist, marxist(?) agenda.

    But the number issue is that nationality doesn’t matter much, Google is a good search engine - not because or inspite of it being American. Being European isn’t a feature … unless it can do something for Europeans that Google can’t? But it would be nice when some features from Google are rolled out to the US only/first, to have a European one which would focus on us first.

41. Olympius
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:13 am

    Wow, what an awesome domain name! I love Greek/Roman domain names. Glad to see they put out some money and get a good, relevant domain name for their company instead of making up dumb and stupid names like ooma, ujogo, kijiji, zattoo…just to darn many to list here. Bravo Theseus!

42. Alexi
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:33 am

    Maybe the EU should have named it Penisius…to compensate for their small “member” complex.

    I really want someone to slap google in their place…and I’d rather see euros do it then some guys that copy code in china. But I have a problem with the EU suing companies such as google and ms and funding/promoting homegrown competitors. Not to mention airbus etc.

43. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:52 am

    Alexi, the difference between Airbus and Boeing is that Europe is open about government intervention and subsidies.

44. Kathryn
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 11:19 am

    Bob, much of Boeing’s success has come through technology funded by contracts with the US Department of Defense.

    “Penisius” - lol

45. Bob Jones
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 11:27 am

    Kathryn, I know but there seems to be an attitude around here that America doesn’t get involved in that sort of stuff like Europe does …

46. Alexi
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 12:05 pm

    Airbus also gets defense money along with funding subsidies for commercial aircraft. I don’t think anyone would dispute the military cash injections but the commercial side is what is disputed.

    Anyway I don’t want to get too off topic. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with this thing. I would hope washington gets their head out of their behind and funds the same kind of projects rather than all the defense, bloated government, and foreign aid. Well…..I can dream can’t I?

47. Martin
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    I worked 7 years for Siemens in Munich and the US. Because of their involvement it WILL NOT SUCCEED!!!
    To much bureaucracy and Professors will kill the project. You need small Startup teams coming up with the ultimate idea on how to built a semantic search and as we have seen in the past, even the No 1 search engine will have problems and a newcomer will take over the field.

    We will see what happens;-)

48. Jamie Barrows
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    I doubt this will succeed any better than the floundering Quaero project. I’m not saying that government infusions of money are not useful for building infrastructure. They can be very useful when it comes to research and building, but they are almost never good for building companies.
    A couple of the commenters above mentioned Boeing as an American example of a private company that is supported by a large government subsidy. And it is, but Boeing is not a good example of a competitive company that provides a good customer service. Boeing is one of the most poorly run companies in the US. It is supported by the US government, not out of envy and jealousy over foreign companies success. It’s supported largely for national security. The US has to ensure that the technological capability to build air planes remains on US soil.
    Google, and most other companies in the US are not supported by the government. Even in industries where US companies are falling behind, there is no call to support or prop up those industries unless there is a military reason to keep the capability on US soil.
    The reason is that government(no matter which country) does a poor job of running a business.

49. Adriano Melo
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

    google search has incorporated to the human culture…

50. Arne
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    Theseus is NOT a search engine or Google Competetior. Please check your sources before you post bullcrap.

    Theseus is a research project for semantic web, which is supported by the government.

    Typical american news writing.

51. sotiredofitall
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    oversaturation

    every online market is totally oversaturated

    everything

    its like real estate in early 2006….too many idiot realtors

    70% of people doing online anything need to find a new line of work

    yes yahoo “sucks” and google is “mortal” but you aren’t going to be taking them out at the knees with your stupid little garage hacks

    yes pownce you have your 15 minutes, but you also only have 15 users

52. Alexi
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    Arne: Nice catch. No need to america-bash…we appreciate knowing the facts as well.

53. Gilou
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    Sentences like “Like just about everything in the history of Europe, France and Germany disagree. ” makes the writer of this article look ridiculous to anyone who has a basic knowledge of what happened in the last 50 years… Keep the tech beat, forget writing about politics.

54. Ian
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

    I think one thing they can agree on is Germans have big sausages, and the French love putting them in their mouths.

    Oh, and Arne: The writer is an Aussie (g’day mate)….sorry to stop your american style bashing.

55. Jukka-Pekka Keisala
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    I think that this is just a good way pull out some tax payers money in Germany. Siemens and other lobbyists are taking scare tactics to the politicians who sees good way to get votes for next election.
    This is one of those projects that will get some crappy website online and suddenly hundreds of millions euros were spent in nothing…

    But like I have seen from the comments as a European (I am Finnish) the last paragraph that started with: “Like just about everything in the history of Europe, France and Germany disagree. ” got me thinking if this guy really writing out of facts.

56. Michael in California
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:15 pm

    “Like just about everything in the history of Europe, France and Germany disagree.”

    Why do sentences like this even need to be included in this kind of article?

    Is TechCrunch a blog about tech news, or Duncan Riley’s personal beliefs and misconceptions about the world?

57. Alex Linhares
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    OMG!!!

    It’s the end for Google!

    So sad for them!

    What now, maybe mighty Venezuela will also develop such a killer search engine?

58. Patrick London
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

    I have to laugh when I read “governments can’t do it” and “the private sector will deliver”. I mean, haven’t you guys heard of Metronet? On the other hand, have you checked the healthcare system in France, the transport networks of France (yes, again) or other continental countries?

    I live in London, and the people who are wasting my taxpayer’s money are not the public companies - interestingly enough, it is the private companies. How they manage to get a hold of my taxes, well, you have to ask the government.

    As for the comment between France and Germany - lol. What do they kids learn at school, that history starts in the 19th Century? That Germany equates to Prussia? Come on, find your passport, get on a plane to Europe and enroll for a term in History 101.

59. tech rant
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    Usually these sort of projects fail. Google has such a huge market share a rival search engine will either need to outstrip it on numerous grounds (like Firefox did to I.E.) or Google will have to undergo serious problems… I can’t see this working out.

60. Ankesh
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:10 pm

    Hi Duncan, love the reference to Yes Minister…

61. Ron
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    Am I wRong, or is there a typo somewhere in this,

    “is aiming to develop “the world’s most advanced multimedia search engine for the next-generation Internet.” will received a cash injection”

    ‘will received’??

    Other than that, $165 million is nice pocket change. I don’t think that will buy their way into Google’s world though.

62. Sam
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

    You can sure count on the EU to subsidize and privately fund technology movements in edition to steel and coal! God bless the European union, and we can only pray that naughty child Britain will some day join!

63. Krixxr
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 10:57 pm

    Greetings from Munich! (presently)

    My weekend is saved now. I broke out laughing reading this. Hey, Eric at Google, I would suggest to reward all employees at Google with a 2-month Nepal-Tibet trekking. They would not miss anything.
    Siemens will absolutely make sure that Theseus (oh, this German humanistic “Bildungs” approach; read the feuilletons in weekend newspapers: heavy and deep) will not go anywhere. SAP? How long will it still be a German company?!

    $165 million. Gosh, that buys a lot of stamps.

64. Nemrut
    

    July 20th, 2007 at 11:37 pm

    …this is a laughable endeavor. The French cant even agree on a ‘humane’ workweek (quarante-heures/semaine…mon dieu!!) while the Germans, being such perfectionists, will over-engineer the whole thing and doom the project to failure.

    Until the EU eliminates 4-6wk vacations and overly generous social svcs, Europeans by and large, just wont have the drive nor incentive to compet w/their scrappier and more resourceful US counterparts.

65. the finder
    

    July 21st, 2007 at 1:25 am

    I have read this stream of comments with very much interest.

    I was running a startup for several years before I decided to join one of the companies involved in Theseus. I do not regret that decision.

    Most technology companies will rely on venture capital to grow. In my experience, some venture capitalists are far worse than government bureaucrats.

    They are also bureaucratic, they constantly interfeere with the management of the company, they make one stupid decision after another, and then when you finally start to be successfull, they screw you…

    Some of these are even managing government money. Ever heard about in-Q-te(http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2005/tc20050510_4072_tc_210.htm) which is the venture capital harm of the CIA and which has been investing millions of tax payer’s money in semantic search technology companies for several years? The amount of Theseus is peanuts compared to this and I have no heard your complains about how US tax payer money have distorted the competition…

    One should also mention that 50% of the funding for this program comes from the companies themselves. Depending on the size of the company that participates to the Theseus program, it may in fact be more than 50% of the total budget (I believe large companies contribute 65%).

    The concept that US is a free market and that companies do not receive money from the government is a myth. Havent you heard of SBIRE which is nothing else but tax payer dollars awarded to US startups through government agencies like NASA, the department of defense and others?

    At least in Europe, the process to receive funding is open and transparent. Bids are published, the process is known, and the companies that receive the support are funding 50% of the total budget. I wish I could say the same thing for US programs that fund companies with tax payers’ money…

66. PeWi
    

    July 21st, 2007 at 5:54 am

    oh and another one, that government is crap and private is best.

    how about fire services? do you want your fire department run by a private company? WELL we cannot come to YOUR place, it is too far and our insurance will not pay, if we go into that neighborhood, people might burn our cars, when we get there (something actually being said about the perfectly nice neighborhood I live in).
    So, there are some jobs that are better done by government than by private companies. the blanket statement doesn’t wash (public!!!! transport is another one. Roads. Basically everything that would not be affordable by an individual to have to pay for (healthcare is another one)…
    On the other hand, have you ever worked for a company like IBM, or Shell, or Siemens (like one of the guy’s here) they actually have a bureaucracy much worse than any government. Bureaucracy comes with size. That does not mean they cannot produce innovative products (look at car manufactories that are huge (VW or Toyota) and they still manage to develop new products, innovative technology and thriving industries.
    For some products it is better to have a large infrastructure that supports a business development, rather than a small start up. a lot of big companies have the facilities to have ten start up’s inside their company at the same time - with a much better infrastructure support than any start up could ever dream (have you ever started a company - apart from self exploitation to the grandest scale - the equipment you are having is not always the latest and best. you just haven’t got he money…
    So at the end of this rant.
    Government subsidies are being given for a huge variety of reasons. Some are political, some are economical - all have their advantages and disadvantages, but simply to dismiss something, because it received government subsidies shows only the lack of knowledge on the side of the person that makes that statement.

67. Alex
    

    July 21st, 2007 at 11:23 am

    OMG.

    I so much hate our politics here in Europe. They will never get it.

    In 2, 3 years or so nobody will use these services but they will still sell it as success and say that we are so super innovative.

    I don’t like Bush, but still count me as US politics supporter…

68. PeWi
    

    July 21st, 2007 at 4:23 pm

    oh and one last comment, have you ever considered the state of the mobile network in the states, and wondered, why you havse such crap service? (non widespreadd usage of g3 f.e - well, lack of standards is one thing - lack of government regulation in other words. and by coincidence, that is exactly what theseus is going to investigate - Standards and the money will finance the research into that. the result might be another mp3 format, for all I know. (which was also financed by the state - therefore royalty free, and therefore usable and exploitable by companies to their leisure….

69. Anders Gardebring
    

    July 21st, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    What a wonderful way to waste enormous amounts of money…

70. Michael
    

    July 22nd, 2007 at 8:17 am

    Its unlikely that Theseus or any truly semantic search company will operate in the US and some non-us countries as the scalable indexing, image feature extraction, mediation between ontologies and other foundation patents are owned by US based Jarg Corporation.

71. Michael
    

    July 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 am

    Duncan,

    re comment 22:

    I am not “seriously arguing that French/ German relations have always been perfect since WW2″. Because they have not. But there is other shades of gray than concluding that “Like just about everything in the history of Europe, France and Germany disagree”.

    Re “tarrifs, subsidies etc etc”. Of course, there are and have been arguments about these topics (since large sums of money is involved). But there have been arguments also between France, Germany and England, Poland, Greece and essentially everyone else int he EU. Would you say they all _always disagree_? (at least these countries brought the EU to its current state so there must be something they agree on).

    As some other commenters I think that this whole argument should not be conducted on TC. I would prefer posts without side sentences about politics .

    Cheers
    Michael

72. Sebastian
    

    July 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 am

    Just to give some more background information: The money is spent on a so called Leuchtturm Projekt (lighthouse project), initiated by the German ministry of research and education. They decided that they want to fund research, but not to create a competitor for Google. They are basically saying that such a competitor can’t be created with public money but that the market will create it on its own. The French did not agree and so they are having their own program aiming at a replacement for Google. The original idea was to have one big research project, but after those political problems they decided to split it.

    A lot of money will go into Semantic Web research, linguistic research and stuff like that. I’m convinced that this is not done only for Germany or France but that everybody interested in this kind of technology will benefit.

    However, from my own background as a contributor in a public funded EU project I’m concerned that such big projects usually do not deliver enough for the money. I would also like to see much smaller projects with a strong focus instead of such big projects trying to solve everything.

    Regards,

    Sebastian

73. HugoMe
    

    July 24th, 2007 at 3:32 am

    The conception that Germany and France always disagree has been false for half a century, as every european knows.
    It is true however than the late president Chirac had not the vision of his predecessors and that things has been stalling a little the last 5 years. The question is wether the new one (Sarkozy) will have the lucidity not to think he is Bonaparte.
    Considering Google, it is a strategical necessity that Europe builds a European search engine. I am not sure it is so difficult to build an efficient search engine. What is difficult is to get top of mind notoriety, which is not the probleme here

74. Dev
    

    July 25th, 2007 at 12:07 am

    Just because they’ve got the money doesn’t mean they can build a superior search engine. By the time Theseus works on a super search algorithm, Google will have perfected and introduced new features to theirs, much like they are doing today