Qwant and Ecosia, two European search engines you have probably heard whispered about in privacy circles, just leveled up. They have started using their very own homegrown search index called Staan, built together through their joint venture, European Search Perspective (EUSP).
And no, it’s not just another Google wannabe. Staan is being pitched as a cheaper, more privacy-friendly alternative to Google and Bing, especially for apps and AI chatbots that need search functionality without selling their data soul. Right now, the goal is to cover half of France’s search traffic and about a third of Germany’s by the end of the year. Not a bad start, right?
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Qwant is already putting the new index to work, offering AI-generated search summaries, and Ecosia says similar features are on the way. Staan isn’t just for browser searches either; it is targeting chatbot integrations too. If your favorite AI assistant needs to “ground” its answers in web data, Staan could soon be feeding it.
“Google and Bing are expensive,” says Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll, “and our index can offer those same powerful search features at a tenth of the cost.”
Besides cost, the move is also deeply political. EUSP and allies like Proton are pushing for a European tech stack that isn’t dependent on U.S. or Chinese infrastructure. Think of it as digital independence.
With U.S. elections stirring geopolitical tension and European lawmakers getting twitchy about relying on Big Tech, the timing for this couldn’t be more on the nose.
And while Google is still the household name, Kroll argues that EUSP, paired with Europe’s strict privacy laws- offers something Big Tech can’t: trust. Can Europe build a digital future that isn’t just a spin-off of Silicon Valley? With tools like Staan, we may finally be seeing the first real steps toward that goal.
