European Parliament to adopt French search engine Qwant as default, replacing Google
By
Euractiv
Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Summary
The European Parliament is replacing Google with France's Qwant as the default search engine on its computers, starting this week. This move is part of broader efforts by EU institutions to reduce dependence on US tech giants and improve European tech sovereignty. While Microsoft's Office suite dominates EU bodies, Google holds about 90% of the European search engine market. The change takes effect on Thursday, a day after the European Commission's related activities.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThe European Parliament will this week replace Google with France's Qwant – a European alternative search engine – as the default on its computers
Microsoft is usually core to discussions of European institutions' (lack of) tech sovereignty, with almost all EU bodies using the US giant's Office workplace suite
Google is also extremely entrenched in the global search engine market with a European market share of about 90%
Parliament will attempt to move the needle away from the US giant starting on Thursday – a day after the European Commission is
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