Science: Quaero: a European search engine available on the Internet

April 2006

Quaero is set to be operational by this summer. Launched in April 2005 by French President Jacques Chirac and the Chancellor of Germany, the “European Google” leverages the expertise of numerous French and German companies. Far more than a simple search engine, the project intends to outdo the giants of the Internet arena by introducing new technologies for the production, management and use of multimedia digital content. European research institutes and universities will also contribute to this vast project.

Quaero (“search” or “I seek” in Latin) is a Franco-German project that aims to introduce new technologies for the production, management and use of multimedia digital content. The rapid development of digital technologies provides increasing volumes of ever-more accessible and highly diverse data. But it also raises various concerns, such as protecting copyrights, distinguishing correct information from incorrect data, and not getting bogged down by the sheer quantity of data on the Web. Quaero has been designed to provide the tools required to meet these concerns.

According to the latest report of the project’s task force, chaired by Gérard Cromme from Thyssenkrupp and Jean-Louis Beffa from Saint-Gobain, “the main technological advances provided by Quaero relate to the transcription, indexing and translation of audiovisual documents, the recognition and indexing of images, multimedia search engines, electronic signatures and watermarking, and the long-term storage of extremely large volumes of data and digital production environments for the media and audiovisual industry. These innovations will generate the development of new services to make content available and the production of solutions and tools for the management of multimedia information, such as search engines extended to the audiovisual industry”. The project’s cost totals € 250 million of which 90 million is being provided by the public authorities and the remainder by private companies.

The project’s development requires a multitude of skills. Various companies have come on board, such as Siemens, Lycos Europe and Empolis, a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann media group. Other partners include Deutsche Thomson-Brandt (a subsidiary of French company Thomson), MediaSec Technologies (security and encryption), Grass Valley Germany (video production equipment), France Télécom, Bertelsmann and Thales as well as LTU, Vecsys and Exalead.

Each company will actively contribute to the project. “We will provide the research technology”, explains François Bourdoncle, CEO of Exalead. “Our search engine already contains 4 billion pages, at least half the amount in Google”. Equipped with advanced viewing functions, the Exalead tool is expected to exceed 8 billion indexed pages by this summer. Furthermore, it can already be used to launch searches according to a selected format and can pull up related sites by topic or section. “Quaero is a stimulus for joint research, encouraging each of us to develop our own specific products”, adds the CEO. Furthermore, at the close of the Franco-German Council of Ministers of March 2006, the German Minister of Economy announced the participation of scientific partners such as the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), a branch of the Fraunhofer Research Institute, Karlsruhe University and the RWTH Aachen Technical University.

The Quaero project was unveiled in April 2005 in Reims during a Franco-German Council of Ministers, on the initiative of French President Jacques Chirac and then Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder. Both men, key European figures, wish to develop new systems for processing knowledge and information for commercial applications on the Internet and on specific markets. Competition in this area is tough. In France alone, 87.9% of Internet search engine users turned to Google during the 2nd quarter 2005 (according to a Médiamétrie survey), compared to 9.8% for the Exalead search engine already on line. However, Quaero’s official launch, scheduled for this summer, is expected to accelerate the pace of change.

Delphine Barrais

Websites
Quaero project official website: www.gtfa-2006.com
Exalead official website: www.exalead.fr/search

Last updated: 03.05.2006