EU taxpayers to fund $306m Google rival

Mike Butcher writes on Techcrunch.com that "twenty-three European private firms led by electronics firm Thomson are about to get EUR99m ($152m) from the French government to develop a European rival to Google. The European Commission approved the funding because it thinks the research and cultural benefits of the Quaero project will offset the fact that they just handed a ton of cash to Thomson to give it a head start".