The French Oxymoron Called Quaero

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

My own thoughts about it were expressed thus:

[] The idea of Quaero is a terrific one. Yet I can’t imagine anything more oxymoronic than “government-backed search engine.”

Loic Le Meur – a Frenchman – has posted a withering commentary on this oxymoron, lambasting the French government in the process.

Headline points from Loic’s 10 reasons why the French search engine will fail:

1. Can’t spell it.

2. Centralized.

3. Secret versus beta.

4. No buzz, no adoption.

5. A galaxy of actors who compete to get the subventions and don’t get much noticed for their latest web innovations.

6. Not really international.

7. A neverending story.

8. Not enough euros.

9. Subventions euros are not worth venture capital euros.

10. Google is a thousand startups

See Loic’s post for the excruciating details.

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.