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Context: As Google’s users complain about the poor quality of their search results and the GenAI integration, European organisations are working to find alternative solutions. One initiative aims to create a public search index to support alternative search engines and reduce Europe’s reliance on Google or Bing.
Initial trials of the Open Web Index will begin next month. This new project could help European nations move away from dominant search engines that are ad-driven. OpenWebSearch.eu is a nonprofit initiative that aims to provide alternatives to US tech giants who are increasingly optimizing search around generative AI, advertising and other forms of monetization.
Open Web Index is not a search tool. It is more like a digital database from which search engines can retrieve web pages and files. The major search engines rely on proprietary indices, whereas smaller engines are often reliant on them. According to the Open Web Project, this centralization gives Google and other companies disproportionate control of the global web.
Regulators from the United Kingdom and European Union continue to push back against American tech giants like Apple and Google on issues such as search and artificial intelligence.
Users around the globe have reported a steady drop in search quality. Website operators claim that Google discourages users from leaving the Google ecosystem and that generative AI tools often struggle to deliver accurate data. Some groups believe that developing Europe-based alternative solutions is part of the answer.
Links in pic.twitter.com/usrycPvTNS– Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) May 8, 2025
A 14-member consortium including universities, data centres, tech companies, CERN and other members aims to build and fund the infrastructure for an openly available and robust web index.
Small- and medium-sized businesses could use it to create search engines, large languages models, or other applications which don’t try and sell users ads or at least operate independent of US giants like Google and Bing.
This project also aims at promoting applications that adhere to European values, regulations, and cultures. In theory, EU-based LLMs and search engines would produce more reliable results for languages other than English. The consortium is also examining how the index scrapes content from websites and how clicks affect search rankings.
A Zoom meeting will be held on June 6 from 10 AM until noon CEST to launch the first open trial. Participants will have access to approximately one petabyte worth of content. The Open Web Index will host approximately five petabytes. Future iterations are expected to increase this to 10 petabytes.
