Europe’s internet search project—Quaero—has gotten a lot of flak for taking government money to create an alternative to Google (NSDQ: GOOG). The noise level has only increased after the EU recently cleared France’s $152.4 million (99 million euro) grant to the five-year project. In a long feature in the IHT, those involved in Quaero try to defend themselves against the mutterings that the government money represents an unfair advantage, and is a rather quaint European effort that’s too late to the party.

First off, the participants want everyone to know that they are “not even a search engine,” rather they are a collaboration of 23 companies looking to create prototypes for multimedia and multilingual search tools and any products coming out of the project will be licensed to any company interested in them. And, actually, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a European alternative to American search products. As François Bourdoncle founder of Exalead, a French search engine and competitor of Google, says: “It’s extremely important for the future for Europe to be present in this field,” he said. “Since most of the large players are American, it makes sense.”

Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Blog, compares it to the Airbus-Boeing rivalry. Sure, there will be fairness issues if any commercial products come out of the project, but, as Sullivan says, “…a lot of people feel that thank goodness we did start Airbus and have this thriving industry and made sure that Europe is strong in aerospace. Maybe that is the kick-start [Quaero] need.”