[JPLeRouzic]

Long time ago (~2005) my French Telco employer had a search engine (Voila), and they were worried by Google's influence so they try a test campaign to see how Google's results were different from their own search engine.

The result was astonishing: In the first page most results were similar, except for the order. Specifically a first result in Google was only second in the first page in the company's search engine. But in overall the difference was mostly in the presentation, not in the results.

There was something Spartan in Google's page UI that made it more credible and informative. At the time for most people including academics, they were the good guys and us (Telcos) the bad boys.

I guess academics advices were very influential on young adults who will shape the world the next years.

I guess also the erratic management by France Telecom was for something in the demise of Voila.fr

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

I thought this a really interesting story because, as I remember it, Google was quite well-established and the dominant search engine in 2005.