Sunday, March 27, 2005

C'est la Google

This from Spiegel:

Maybe it's revenge for the fact that the Internet sent Minitel, an early French network service, the way of the Betamax tape -- into the technology graveyard. Or possibly, it has something to do with that inflammatory Google parody showing a faux-search for "French military victories" that came up with zero results ("Did you mean: French military defeats?"). Whatever the reason, Google, the world's largest search engine, has been taking a beating lately in France, legally and culturally. Between a series of lawsuits and recent French furor over Google's plans to digitize some of the world's largest library collections, things are looking tres mauvais for the company in France. A recent phrase born in the French press, "omnigooglization," has even come to be shorthand for America's digital-culture imperialism, stirring old fears of waning French influence reminiscent of recent political struggles. Is Google the new Iraq -- or just the new Disney?

Amid all the hubbub, one thing is certain: Google has managed to create a knee-jerk reaction among the French. When it first announced the digital library project last December, Jeanneney immediately wrote a blistering attack in the daily newspaper Le Monde, calling it "confirmation of the risk of crushing American domination in the way future generations conceive the world."

Google spokeswoman Myriam Boublil says, "French law is just very protective of trademarks." It's true that the French legal code does much more to protect brands than does US law (or German: similar suits have been dismissed within the last year). But that doesn't explain the built up cultural tension over Google's library plans. France has a long history of protecting its culture from American influence, and where there was once Disney to fight against, there is now Google. The French press is slowly turning Google into a yet another American monster -- a headline in the left-leaning Liberation over the weekend dubbed Google "the new ogre of literature."

As for the tension over digital libraries, Boublil says that "Europe must ultimately do the same thing, and we are really very supportive. We don't view it as if it's a war." Google may not, but it's clear the French may see it that way.

Well, if it's a war, the French will find some way to lose it.

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