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AMERICAN SUCCESS has a way of flustering  Europe into bad policies. Search engines are one dispiriting example.

As Google and Yahoo dominated the Internet in the early 2000S, Jacques Chirac, then president of France, beseeched Europe to ''go on the offensive'' so that America would not dominate  '' the power of tomorrow ''.

With EU's assent, France poured around Euro 100 million roughly $ 147 million back then '  into QUAERO, a would-be rival to America's  giants.

Predictably the venture was dubbed '' Eurogoogle. ''

Equally predictably, the big firms and public outfits that pocketed the money frittered it all away. Whoever Google's rivals are today, they are not from Europe.

Those curious to find out what happened to Quaero can ask Google, or a chatbot.

The World Students Society thanks Charlemagne / The Economist.