Leader: Bring on the new search engines

Quaero, we hardly knew you. The plan to build a Franco-German search engine has encountered turbulence, with the news that Germany has withdrawn its support.

The separation comes just two years after launch, when the two countries had hoped to build a non-Anglophone option in the field of search. Now the project is to be divided between the French effort, which will retain the Quaero name, and a German scheme called Theseus.

While Quaero was not intended to replicate Google's efforts - its aims were more multimedia search and index video and photos - it was almost inevitably seen as a potential competitor to the company, especially as Google expands its search capabilities beyond text.

Like most IT projects involving a government hand (if the UK is anything to go by), it's also running behind schedule.

Search engines - and software in general - are a commercially dominated field, with Quaero being the first major offering by public bodies. The move has raised eyebrows among those who believe government should steer well clear of a market amply served by big name companies, Google and its ilk, which all have media-focused search functionality and serve France and Germany in their native language.

Some might argue the European search market is becoming a bit crowded - along with Quaero and Theseus, yet another European search project, Pharos, has sprung up and received financing from the European Commission.

But, despite these early difficulties, we welcome competition in the search arena. While Google may be the undisputed leader of text search, its pre-eminence in other search is not so guaranteed. And some friendly rivalry, and new search technology developments, could keep Google on its toes.

It could be that Quaero as a two-country act was doomed from the start - a source involved in the project quoted by French newspaper Libération said he had only met the Germans once, while the German press said the project floundered because of President Chirac's 'megalomania'. Still it would be a shame if Quaero or others could find no future in the Google-centric world.