EU: Quaero Can Receive $152 Million

Over time, references to Quaero have become less and less frequent; it seemed that the French search project was more likely to fade from existence than challenge Google.  The European Commission has approved $152 million in state aid, however, so Mountain View might not want to forget about it.

To address an issue some people are sure to think about: two weeks ago, the European Commission fined Microsoft $1.35 billion over antitrust issues, and many saw the amount as excessive.  On the other hand, the European Commission approved the Google-DoubleClick merger yesterday, so it's not as if the entity has resolved to squash all American businesses.

And here's one final bit of information: although we haven't seen any more recent figures, Google's market share in France