I still must use Google for some queries. Google is best for me at these kinds of queries:
• Finding products in online stores that ship to Sverige. I try to avoid buying from Amazon.
• Location-specific queries, like plant-based restaurants near me.
• English queries that only have answers in Svenska, like various government regulations.
Concluding my experiment with Qwant as my default search engine after a little over a week.
I returned to DuckDuckGo as my default search engine.
In general, Qwant’s results seemed almost as relevant as DDG.
Qwant does not provide quick answers. Queries like “convert 1 USD to EUR”, “convert 200F to C”, and “time in CDT” should just give me an answer.
Qwant does not support !bangs. I use !npm !cargo !w daily.
The NGI Forum 2025 marked a strategic shift for Europe’s internet future, from R&D to deployment. Our wrap-up report is now live!
📌 Key takeaways:
🔹 Digital wallets = public infrastructure
🔹European Open Web Index is live and growing
🔹Open source needs public procurement reform
🔹Projects like Mastodon, Taler & Decidim = scalable, sovereign solutions
📖 Read the report: https://ngi.eu/news/2025/06/27/ngi-forum-2025-marks-a-strategic-shift-from-next-generation-internet-toward-the-open-internet-stack/
#NGIForum25 #DigitalSovereignty #OpenInternet #Web4 #DigitalCommons #NextGenerationInternet #NGI
I am experimenting with Qwant as my default search engine for a month after learning more about it at the EU NGI Forum last week.
Like DuckDuckGo, my default it replaces, Qwant uses a mix of Bing infrastructure and its own. Qwant is building its own EU-based web index and search engine in collaboration with Ecosia.
https://www.eucloud.tech/eu-providers/search?ref=activitypub
@wolfgang_oels That’s impressive in such a short amount of time. What are the biggest challenges to increasing that percentage? Index size, results relevancy, results speed?
Is there an equivalent of Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools for the new EUSP index yet?
What could @openwebsearcheu do to be more useful to EUSP’s efforts so they are not duplicated?
@wolfgang_oels Thanks. https://betterweb.qwant.com/en/2024/11/08/ecosia-and-qwant-join-forces-to-develop-european-search-index/ also was useful.
Any update on progress made since November last year?
What percentage of FR or DE language searches today are handled by EUSP infrastructure without assistance from Google or Bing?
Does EUP use the indexing datasets produced by @openwebsearcheu?
@ngi@social.ngi.eu
are recordings of #ngiforum25 also planned to be uploaded to NGI PeerTube, @ngi@video.ngi.eu ?
@opensouthcode
You might be interested in the talk I just gave today, titled "Digital Freedom meets Digital Payments", at the #ngiforum25 in Brussels, about how #gnutaler can help increase funding of #floss. My slides are here:
https://www.kesim.org/ngi-forum-2025.pdf
I feel I should tell people that I used the editor #acme from @robpike to write my #latex presentation about #GNUTaler at the #ngiforum25. Good people, good software, and good stewards deserve recognition.
Excellent participation and and interaction during Q&A of my talk about #GNUTaler at the #ngiforum25, titled "Digital Freedom meets Digital Payments".
If you are interested, here are the slides: https://www.kesim.org/ngi-forum-2025.pdf
"Open source licensing permits continued operation of the software with an EU provider."
That’s technically true, but in practice, how many such transitions actually happen? How many of these tools become hollowed-out ghost projects after the buyout? We need the EU to fund #4opens #FOSS and commons-native projects directly, not startups chasing exit strategies.
I mentioned before that once you avoid calling people "Users" you start to see how weird and artificial doing so is.
> "The NGI Forum 2025 will focus on the building of an Open Internet Stack as conducive to European digital sovereignty and users’ empowerment"
There are great sessions at #NGIForum25 but there's so much "user this, user that". Why not just say "people", isn't that who #EU serves?
People aren't users. "User" is a technical abstraction, that hampers us from seeing real humans.
💳 Digital payments sovereignty at #NGIForum25!
Özgür Kesim @oec presenting "Digital Freedom meets Digital Payments" - how Europeans maintain financial autonomy in digital economy 🇪🇺
Follow LIVE the session on the NGI website: https://ngi.eu/ngi-forum25/
#NGIForum2025 #DigitalSovereignty #OpenInternet #DigitalCommons #EuropeanInnovation #OpenSource #NGIForum
“Why do these companies use NGI-funded #OpenSource solutions instead of a commercial service for software supply chain compliance and #cybersecurity options? Because the American providers are only doing best-effort. In 🇺🇸 you can buy your way out of cyber mistakes. In 🇪🇺 you’re liable for damages thanks to CRA, so the tools we provide for the #EU market are simply much better” at tracking provenance.
#NGIForum25
🔐 Software supply chain security at #NGIForum25!
🎤 Philippe Ombredanne (AboutCode) on "Managing Your Software Supply Chain with NGI: Security, GenAI, and CRA compliance" 🇪🇺
Tackling pressing EU digital sovereignty challenge!
Follow LIVE the session on the NGI website: https://ngi.eu/ngi-forum25/
#NGIForum2025 #DigitalSovereignty #OpenInternet #DigitalCommons #EuropeanInnovation #OpenSource #NGIForum
@nee @MattiSG a post a little strong maybe, but someone has to say this https://hamishcampbell.com/getting-through-this-era-of-collapse-with-anything-human-left-intact/
Getting through this era of collapse with anything human left intact
The discussions on sovereignty at #NGIForum2025 make me wonder: what year are we in? It’s as if we’re rebooting grassroots conversations we’ve had for decades – but without the mess, memory, or movement that gave them meaning in the first place.
A breath of clarity came from @renchap, who said it plainly:
We need to focus our efforts on funding and supporting public value network infrastructure… THAT CANNOT BE BOUGHT. 💪
Absolutely. If that idea resonates with you, try starting […]
https://hamishcampbell.com/getting-through-this-era-of-collapse-with-anything-human-left-intact/
👥 Users FIRST at #NGIForum25!
"Co-creating NGI building blocks with end-user at the centre" - designing EU #DigitalSovereignty around actual user needs! 🎯
🎤 Andrés del Álamo Cienfuegos (@Cibervoluntarios) moderating user-centric experts:
Muttukrishnan Rajarajan (University of London)
Ruben Roex (Timelex)
Thanasis Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Follow LIVE the session on the NGI website: https://ngi.eu/ngi-forum25/
I'm learning a lot at #ngiforum25 during which I keep getting distracted by the need to find what must be a powerfully (though preferably kindly) critical backchannel
🚀 A powerful morning at DAY 2 of #NGIForum25 on building Europe-first web sovereignty:
Sara Garavelli (@CSC) opened with a call for search independence
MEP @alexandrageese (@europarl_en) highlighted policy drivers for Open Web infrastructure
Panels showcased practical applications (search, AI, sustainability)
Stefan Voigt (@Open Search Foundation) led insights on sovereign tech stacks
We’re now hearing closing reflections from Sara, Stefan, and Michael Granitzer.
