Over 30 companies from Japan are trying to develop a new search engine which will compete with the other search engines as equal.

About 30 organizations in Japan, including major electronics and communications companies and the University of Tokyo, will jointly develop technology for a new advanced search engine. Among these 30 companies we find Hitachi, Fujitsu, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group.

The government is poised to provide a subsidy for the large-scale project. The companies and organizations involved will set up a research institute ON Friday at the earliest in a bid to put the new search engine into practical use within two years.

It seems that the source engine will be released to the public. This is one of the thing that the Japanese are holding up against the three big companies. It also seems that users will be able to modify the technology to develop their own search engines to meet their needs.

We will keep an eye on this interesting project and will feed you with informations when these will become available.