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Search Engines Ecosia and Qwant Announce New Alliance To Compete Against Google And Bing
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- Search engines Ecosia and Qwant are partnering to create a European search index in a joint venture called European Search Perspective
- The companies want to gain independence from Google and Bing and take advantage of the Digital Markets Act
- They plan to launch the new search index during the first quarter of next year in France
Berlin-based search engine Ecosia and French privacy-focused search engine Qwant announced a new partnership to develop a new European search index.
According to TechCrunch , the companies expect to bring innovation with the help of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) to diminish their dependence on American tech companies like Alphabet and Microsoft and their respective search engines Google and Bing. Ecosia and Qwant currently rely on Bing and Google for APIs and results for their products.
“With the emergence of AI tools there is a different demand now for a search index,” said Christian Kroll, Ecosia CEO, to TechCrunch. “The two providers, Bing and Google, are basically getting more reluctant to make their index accessible. And of course, as a search engine, we need an index. So that’s partially why we want to make sure we have access.
According to CNBC , the not-for-profit search engine Ecosia and Qwant agreed on a “privacy-first” policy for the new joint venture called the European Search Perspective (EUSP) in which both share a 50-50 ownership.
The new project is expected to be released during the first quarter of next year in France, where Qwant is headquartered. The companies are taking advantage of the Digital Markets Act which aims to regulate gatekeepers and allow small to mid-size European companies to compete more fairly.
“We are European companies and we need to build technology that makes sure no third-party decision — for instance, Microsoft’s decision to increase costs to access their search API — could jeopardize our business,” said Olivier Abecassis, CEO of Qwant, to CNBC, “It is nothing against the U.S. or U.S. companies. It is all about the sovereignty of our business and companies.” Abecassis will also be the CEO of European Search Perspective.
The search engine market evolving as users are relying more on different ways to access information, from social media to chatbots. OpenAI recently launched its AI-powered search engine , and Perplexity has been working on a new advertising system for its AI search platform.
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Google Launches New AI Learning Tool Called “Learn About”
- Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!
- Learn About has been built into the AI model LearnLM
- The AI tool engages in interactive conversations with users on topics like history, astronomy, biology, and more.
- The AI tool is rolling out and is not available in every region
Google has started rolling out a new free AI feature for educational purposes called Learn About.
According to TechCrunch , it’s a new experimental tool built on the AI model LearnLM, which was introduced earlier this year as “grounded in educational research and tailored to how people learn.”
The new tool provides educational information—textbook-style—with interactive content including text, videos, highlights, and an appealing design with vocabulary boxes, warnings, and lists. The interface is different from Gemini or NotebookLM.
On Learn About’s website , Google suggests users ask big questions like “What’s the biggest wave ever surfed?” or “What causes the northern lights?” to engage in a learning experience. There are different topics the AI is trained to teach like Astronomy, Sports, History, Biology, and Home and Life skills.
“Grasp new topics and deepen your understanding with a conversational learning companion that adapts to your unique curiosity and learning goals,” states the site.
However, not every user with a Google Account has access to the feature yet. It is uncertain when exactly Google released this tool as there is no official announcement and many users have reported a message saying they cannot use the technology: “Learn About isn’t currently available in your location.” The tech giant could still be analyzing its performance with selected users during this early stage.
Yesterday, Youtuber Ryan Doser shared a review of the new tool and showed how, after asking a question and getting a response, the tool shares three buttons for the user to choose from: simplify, go deeper, and get images.
Google also recently launched Audio Overview , an AI tool for generating audio discussions with AI hosts from content users added to NotebookLM.
Other companies like Eureka Labs—created by former OpenAI researcher and Tesla head of AI, Andrej Karpathy— have also been developing educational tools using AI.
