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April 27, 2006

France to beat Google at the search game. No, really. Stop laughing.

From the Guardian.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, yesterday unveiled what he hopes will be his great legacy to France's struggle against the global dominance of the US: a series of technological projects including a European search engine to rival Google.

Chirac will commit two billion dollars to the project. This is, of course, another nationalistic drive to save France from becoming 'that socialist place with good museums'.

So far this year, Google has spent $247 million in R&D, on top of last year's $600 million. Capital expenditure was $1.2 billion over the last 16 months. They are predicted to spend $1.1b on R&D this year.

Somehow, I can't see any government project catching up to such an energetic company. And even if they do, the goal posts will have well and truly moved on.

Je suis désolé, Monsieur Chirac. You do have the nicest art museum, if thats any consolation.

Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at April 27, 2006 10:52 AM

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