The new initiative aims to build an independent, sovereign search index for the European internet ecosystem
In a landmark move to redefine the future of internet search in Europe, Qwant and Ecosia—two of the continent’s most prominent privacy-focused search engines—have unveiled STAAN, a new European open-source search index. STAAN is positioned as a digital infrastructure project designed to reduce dependence on U.S. tech giants like Google and Microsoft.
The announcement comes amid growing regulatory scrutiny over digital monopolies and a broader push for digital sovereignty in the EU. STAAN (Search Technology for an Autonomous and Accountable Net) is expected to provide an alternative indexing framework that allows smaller European search engines and digital services to operate with greater independence and transparency.
What Is STAAN?
STAAN is not a new search engine itself, but rather an open and collaborative search index—the digital infrastructure layer that enables search engines to crawl, index, and rank the web’s vast content. For years, companies like Google and Microsoft have dominated this layer, leaving most alternative search providers to rely on their data or APIs.
With STAAN, Ecosia and Qwant aim to build a shared, neutral search infrastructure that European startups, public institutions, and smaller platforms can tap into without compromising on privacy or falling into commercial dependency traps.
This initiative is supported by a €8.5 million grant from the European Union, part of the broader NextGenerationEU digital strategy, which prioritizes open technologies and digital independence.
Why It Matters for Europe
For years, European regulators and technologists have argued that reliance on U.S.-based tech companies for core digital infrastructure—like search, cloud, and social media—creates strategic vulnerabilities. These include data privacy concerns, economic dependency, and limited innovation ecosystems.
STAAN is a direct response to this concern. By establishing a European alternative that complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is developed in the open, the project aligns with Europe’s vision for tech sovereignty.
“It’s about building infrastructure for Europe, by Europe,” said Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia. “We’re not just launching a new product—we’re building the digital roads that everyone else can drive on.”
How STAAN Will Work
STAAN is designed as a modular, scalable, and API-accessible index that can be integrated by developers, businesses, and civic tech platforms across the EU. It will support full-text indexing, semantic search capabilities, and be regularly updated using web crawlers designed to follow European data guidelines.
The codebase is open-source and hosted on GitHub, inviting contributions from public and private partners. Qwant will lead on the crawling and indexing technology, while Ecosia will focus on sustainability, partnerships, and user-centric design.
One key feature of STAAN is that it will be built with privacy as a default, avoiding the user profiling and behavioral targeting models that dominate mainstream search engines.
Competitive but Collaborative
While the project is undoubtedly a challenge to Google’s hegemony in Europe—where it controls over 90% of the search market—the founders insist STAAN is not an anti-Google project but a pro-European one. The idea is to enable choice and foster innovation rather than dismantle existing players.
“We are not saying Google shouldn’t exist. But there should be alternatives. STAAN gives people that choice,” said Tristan Nitot, VP Advocacy at Qwant.
Already, other European tech entities and universities have expressed interest in integrating with STAAN or contributing to its roadmap. The open nature of the project also means it could power specialized search engines, academic databases, or civic tech applications in local languages and niche domains.
What’s Next?
STAAN will begin with a pilot launch later this year, with initial testing across select EU countries. A broader rollout is expected in 2026, contingent on technical benchmarks and stakeholder adoption.
The project also aims to create local jobs, enhance Europe’s AI training capabilities (through indexed data sets), and potentially feed into larger EU-backed tech initiatives focused on web transparency, misinformation tracking, and public data access.
Observers say STAAN’s success will depend on performance parity with incumbent players. Building a high-quality index is resource-intensive, and sustained public-private funding will be key.
Nonetheless, the project signals a serious attempt to decentralize one of the internet’s most powerful chokepoints: who gets to decide what we see when we search.