Although the "there" in this case represents more of a starting line than any results, French search project Quaero is indeed "getting there."  Reports indicate it’s making new hires and planning an important spring meeting.

Over time, references to Quaero have become less and less frequent; it seemed that the French search project was more likely to fade from existence than challenge Google.  The European Commission has approved $152 million in state aid, however, so Mountain View might not want to forget about it.

On the one hand, new data makes it surprising that Google doesn’t cater more to the French market.  On the other hand, perhaps the search giant doesn’t need to – in France, it already has a market share of almost 90 percent.

Google’s search dominance has reached legendary proportions, and the term “Google killer” has become something of a joke.  But there’s word that a number of powerful companies, along with the Japanese government, will work together to challenge the search giant.

First things first: 118 218 is a French directory assistance number.  It’s provided by Le Numero, which can be traced to INFONXX, but that’s all secondary.  What’s interesting is that 118 218 searches are now powered by Exalead.

It seems the European Union is all too quick to question Google’s dominance and probe its acquisitions, but is there a huge conflict of interest to consider?

The mythological Theseus was a Greek hero who became a king; he presumably became filthy rich, as well.  The modern Theseus – a German search engine project – has also gained quite a bit of money: the European Commission just authorized $165 million in aid.

France and Germany had great plans to take on Google for search engine dominance, but the French will have to go it alone as Germany withdraws from the project.

In January, I wrote about Quaero, a planned European multimedia search engine, the answer to Google and brainchild of the French government.

The much-discussed Quaero project, in development with French tech giant Thomson, adds Bertelsmann AG as the German project lead and partner in the venture; apparently neither of them bothered to do a whois lookup on the name first.

If you’ve been following the story of the Franco-German Quaero project – a planned European multimedia search engine, the answer to Google and brainchild of the French government – you’ll know that European politics have contributed to the mire it’s been in for some months.

French technology firm Thomson has withdrawn the Quaero project website after a barrage of interest from people followed French President Chriac’s portrayal of Quaero as a Google challenger.

AP reports that a consortium of French and German techies are putting together Quaero, Europe’s answer to Google.