Qwant and Ecosia Debut Staan, a European Search Index Aiming to Challenge Big Tech
European search engines Qwant and Ecosia have announced the launch of Staan, a new search index developed collaboratively. This initiative aims to provide a privacy-focused and more cost-effective alternative to dominant players like Google and Bing, reducing reliance on Big Tech infrastructure.
The collaboration, formalized through a joint venture named European Search Perspective (EUSP), was initiated last year. EUSP’s mission is to build a robust European search index, with current goals to handle approximately 50% of French search queries and 33% of German queries by the end of this year.
Qwant is already integrating the Staan index to power several of its features, including AI-powered search summaries. Ecosia also plans to introduce similar AI functionalities to its platform in the near future.
Beyond consumer search, EUSP is actively engaging with other companies to promote the adoption of its index for enabling search capabilities within applications, particularly targeting chatbots. Staan is being positioned as a significantly cheaper alternative to the search solutions offered by Google and Bing.
Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, highlighted the economic benefits, stating, “If you’re using ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot, they all do knowledge grounding with web search … our index can power deep research and AI summary features. Google and Bing’s solutions are also pricey, and our index can offer power search features at a tenth of the cost.”
The development of Staan aligns with a broader European effort to cultivate a distinct technological ecosystem, less dependent on US or Chinese technology giants. This movement, exemplified by companies like Proton, seeks to bolster European digital sovereignty.
In a joint statement, the companies emphasized the urgency of this endeavor, noting, “The outcome of the 2024 U.S. election has reminded European policymakers and innovators just how exposed Europe remains when it comes to core digital infrastructure. Much of Europe’s search, cloud, and AI layers are built on American Big Tech stacks, putting entire sectors – from journalism to climate tech – at the mercy of political or commercial agendas.”
Kroll further elaborated that Staan, combined with stringent European privacy regulations, offers a more privacy-conscious search solution compared to its American counterparts, reinforcing the commitment to user data protection.
