GoKawiilEuropean legislators are taking another step away from relying on American tech. The European Parliament will reportedly stop using Google as the default search engine on its in-house computers. According to Politico, searches made via the address bar on Firefox and Edge will take place via French alternative Quant by default as of June 4. However, workers can still go to another search engine's website or change the default systems on their system if they prefer.
Officials are making the change "in line with the Parliament's commitment to digital sovereignty and the protection of users' personal data," according to an email that was reportedly sent to staff. The missive purportedly referred to Quant as a "privacy-focused European search engine."
The apparent shift to Quant as the default search engine is taking place as the European Union attempts to reduce its reliance on foreign technology and focus on alternatives developed in Europe. The European Commission is expected to reveal a sovereignty package designed with that in mind on June 3. France in particular has been taking steps toward that goal, as it plans to switch government workstations from Windows to Linux and abandon Zoom and Microsoft Teams in favor of the homegrown Visio for video calls.
The EU is not exactly alone in ditching Google as its default search engine, particularly as Google slops up Search with even more AI. DuckDuckGo, for instance, claimed its app installs soared after Google announced the changes. The company, which gives users the option to turn off generative AI in search results, said on Tuesday that it broke its all-time single-day search traffic record on June 1.