Silly little Jacques

consumer demand should not triumph over good taste and cultural sophistication.

So Sayeth the French.

President Jacques Chirac wants to stop this American cultural invasion by setting up a rival French search-engine. The idea was prompted by Google's plan to put online millions of texts from American and British university libraries. If English books are threatening to swamp cyberspace, Mr Chirac will not stand idly by.
/snip/
“I do not believe”, wrote Mr Donnedieu de Vabres in Le Monde, “that the only key to access our culture should be the automatic ranking by popularity, which has been behind Google's success.”

How dare the foolish users of search engines determine the ranking of responses? Good thing the French government is there to push back the encroachment of the English speaking world. Hell, if they don't take care of this soon, someone might google across the idea that France is way past her prime on the world scene.

viva la difference.

I think the french language, culture and customs should be protected from the encroachment of the rest of the world, at all cost. They should build a big wall/fortification around the country for protection. Name it after some famous french hero like....oh...say........André Maginot. :eyebrow:

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

[The French] should build a big wall/fortification around the country for protection.

I'd feel safer :)

Me too. If it was patrolled and electrified and stuff, like in Escape from New York, and they couldn't get out ...

Chirac has always been fairly gaullist, this stuff is mostly for internal consumption only, like a lot of US politics.

jaguar wrote:

Chirac has always been fairly gaullist, this stuff is mostly for internal consumption only, like a lot of US politics.

OH, there ya go, throwing the US into it again! This is about FRANCE, Jag. FRANCE! Don't go diluting the blood of the faithful unwashed! :)

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

They should build a big wall/fortification around the country for protection.

And fill it with water.

mrnoodle wrote:

And fill it with water.

or cheezwhiz......yeah, cheezwhiz.

or how about some sort of deodorent to keep the stink down?