Quaero 'does not want to rival Google'

27th March 2008

The Jacques Chirac-pioneered cyber search initiative Quaero is not attempting to usurp Google, a leader of the project has said.

Jean-Charles Hourcade, chief technology officer of Thomson, the multimedia company that is leading Quaero, told the International Herald Tribune that its critics have misunderstood the aim of the project.

Rather than an attempt to stray onto the Google-dominated turf of consumer search, Quaero is instead claimed to be a research collaboration aimed at developing multilingual and multimedia search prototypes.

Mr Horucade cited "coopetition" - the marriage of competition and cooperation - as the key driving force behind the programme and pointed out that any results achieved through its investigations would be made available to any interested company.

However, renewed criticism of the scheme has emerged following the European commission's approval of an aid granted by France to Quaero this month.

Other companies supporting the initiative - billed as the next "Google-killer" by some of its critics - include Siemens AG and France Telecom.