French Response to Google is Microsoft

efp writes "Mark Liberman posted over in the Language Log that, in considering alternatives to Google's library initiative in Europe, French President Jacques Chirac would consider a partnership with Microsoft 'since he has so many views in common with its president, Bill Gates'. This comes out of talks between the French president, the head of the French National Library and the Minister of Culture, in in part 'building an alter ego to the American project, before thinking of an eventual collaboration with Google, so as not to negotiate from a position of weakness' as they plan to digitize their cultural resources."

Comments

Re:He, you Anglosaxons might have a point :-)

[Ohreally_factor]

Actually, I think the anti-French thing in the US comes mostly from the second half of the last century, mostly because of Charles de Gaulle (although Churchill, Roosevelt and Ike certainly had problems with him during WW2, but that stuff didn't come to light until later).

Chirac to my (typically uninformed American) eye seems to be in the mold of de Gaulle, and I'd guess that part of his popularity is from him "standing up" to the US.

England, otoh, does have a looooong history of conflict with France. The English version of the finger is two fingers held defiantly (with the palm inwards, as opposed to peace or victory, where the palm is outward), from the days when the French would cut off the fingers of any English longbow troops they captured.