December 6th saw Google inaugurate its new French offices in Paris, , which will serve as its headquarters, not only for France but for all its Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

As part of the celebration, French President Nicolas [...]]]> December 6th saw Google inaugurate its new French offices in Paris, , which will serve as its headquarters, not only for France but for all its Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

As part of the celebration, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the offices to meet Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt, and while there he connected with many French speaking Googlers from around the world via Google+ Hangouts. Sarkozy praised Google’s dynamism and showed his support of innovation and entrepreneurship. He referenced past conversations with Eric Schmidt, when Sarkozy had expressed the need for the search giant to develop roots in France.

In addition to the Google France offices, the new headquarter will host a development and research centre (in partnership with the French national research centre CNRS) and a cultural institute. Google is working towards expanding its cultural activities and the new offices will be home of worldwide cultural operations. The initial investment represents more than 100 million Euros and 350 Googlers will be working on site.

Eric Schmidt was also speaking at Le Web conference in Paris today.

Fun fact: the new headquarter is located on 8, rue de Londres, Paris.

More info on the official Google blog

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SaveurBière.com has been sentenced and fined a 10000euro fine by the Cour d’Appel de Douai, France (court of appeals of Douai) for abusive SEO tactics & techniques. Google did not think those techniques were outside its guidelines…

]]> SaveurBière.com has been sentenced and fined a 10000euro fine by the Cour d’Appel de Douai, France (court of appeals of Douai) for abusive SEO tactics & techniques. Google did not think those techniques were outside its guidelines…

The story

2007, Julien Lemarchand bought Saveur Bière.com domain name – as well as fifty odd related domain names (misterbiere.com, esprit-biere.com, couleur-biere.com…). Each domain name had a unique page with unique content. Julien’s goal was to capture Google’s – and other search engines of course – attention around the keyword ‘biere’, and rank on top for all keyword variations on the SERPs via his chain of unique websites. Lemarchand ultimate goal was to launch a beer dedicated e-commerce website which he eventually did with Saveur Bière.com.

The issue came from his website selectionbiere.com. The owner of selection-biere.com thought Lemarchand’s website was too close to hers and lodged a legal complaint against Lemarchand back in 2008. Then, Julien was sentenced and he got rid of most of his websites and by consequence stop his ‘illegal SEO tactics’.

Yet, since the likes of Google never told him he did wrong nor penalized him, Lemarchand decided to appeal against the tribunal’s decision.

The Court of Appeals of Douai decided to dismiss him and fine him 10 000euros. The Judge said: ” buying so many domain names repeating extensively the keyword ‘biere’ and working at developing links directing towards those websites resulting being on top of search engines results, Julien Lemarchand and SARL Saveur Biere practiced unfair competition practices preventing Celine S ( selection-biere.com ) from getting visitors on her website”.

This is a school case which is now a precedent in terms of SEO techniques and practices in France and perhaps Europe?

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On the 6th December .fr (France) and .re (Reunion) domain names will be available for registration to all European Union citizens.

Afnic, the non-profit entity managing the French top level domain names attribution, has until now only [...]]]> On the 6th December .fr (France) and .re (Reunion) domain names will be available for registration to all European Union citizens.

Afnic, the non-profit entity managing the French top level domain names attribution, has until now only allowed companies and individuals residing in France to buy a .fr domain.

Afnic will also activate the domain names .wf (Wallis and Fortuna), .tf (French Australasian and Antarctic territories), .pm (Saint Pierre and Miquelon) and .yt (Mayotte) under the same rules as the .fr.

This change in policy is highly anticipated by every company doing remote business with France but so far unable to secure a .fr domain.

The domains names will be available from the 6th December but as yet no prices have been named. More technical details are expected be released by Afnic soon.

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As part of Comscore’s release of May data, the company provided details of the ten fastest growing verticals in France for the month of May compared with April. As the chart below shows, this showed a dramatic spike [...]]]> As part of Comscore’s release of May data, the company provided details of the ten fastest growing verticals in France for the month of May compared with April. As the chart below shows, this showed a dramatic spike in demand for car rental, help with taxes and flowers, gifts or greetings.

Of course, all markets have their own seasonality and May in France was no exception. Comscore’s team explains, “There were (sic) a string of bank holidays in France in May, the fastest growing web category was Car Rental (up 69 per cent from the previous month), driven by the growth in monthly visitation to Paris-based European rental car company property Europcar, Hertz.fr, and Priceline subsidiary eLocationdeVoitures.fr. In preparation for an annual income tax filing deadline at the end of May, properties in the Taxes category also saw an increase in visitation of 50 per cent. Finally, as Mother’s Day approached for France, properties purveying flowers, presents, and e-cards in the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category saw an increase of 43 per cent.”

Fastest Growing Verticals in France in May 2011, According To Comscore

From the data, we have also been able to extract the most important verticals — more useful data to most marketers — from the fastest growing ten. This shows, possibly not surprisingly, that after government sites, the French are particularly interested in Fashion with 28.5% of all web activities focused around the fashion segment. This puts fashion ahead of Lotto/sweepstakes which achieved a reach of only 17.9%.

Most Popular Verticals in France Of Those Growing Fastest, According To Comscore May 2011

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French Internet pioneer Jacques Antoine Granjon, founder of Ventre-privee.com, has now set up alongside with Xavier Niel, Marc Simoncini – a.k.a Mr Meetic [...]]]> French Internet pioneer Jacques Antoine Granjon, founder of Ventre-privee.com, has now set up alongside with Xavier Niel, Marc Simoncini – a.k.a Mr Meetic – & Alain Malvoisin the Ecole Européenne des Métiers de l’Internet (EEMI) – Internet Trade European School: http://www.eemi.com/ .

This is a private school set to kick start in Autumn 2011. The fee structure and location have not yet been confirmed but private schools in France can cost as much as €10 000 per year. The tuition will be based on a 3 year program.

The school will be backed up by Kima Ventures and Jaina Capital.

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Médiamétrie has just released for the second time the number of mobile internet users in France in 2010.

The figures represent traffic on websites, portals and apps from [...]]]> Médiamétrie has just released for the second time the number of mobile internet users in France in 2010.

The figures represent traffic on websites, portals and apps from a mobile phone.

France’s 2010 last quarter – Q4 2010 – accounts for 43.4million internet users of which 15.5million use their mobile phone to go online (+3.3mllion vs. 2009 figures).

Mobile internet users are mostly men – 60 per cent – mainly aged between 16 to 49 years old.

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According to yesterday’s Le Figaro article, companies advertising online will have to pay a tax – the infamous ‘Google Tax’ – equalling 1% of the yearly ad spend from January 1st 2011.

This tax creation [...]]]> According to yesterday’s Le Figaro article, companies advertising online will have to pay a tax – the infamous ‘Google Tax’ – equalling 1% of the yearly ad spend from January 1st 2011.

This tax creation was proposed by french  ‘député’ Philippe Marini who also requested to tax french companies e-commerce revenue by 0.5%. France has a tradition of taxing revenue generated by advertising but this is a first where the advertiser is taxed. Some say this is a hidden way for the French government to tax ‘ad revenue giants’ such as Google that based their EMEA heaquarters in ‘fiscal & tax heavens’ such as Ireland…

L’Union Des Annonceurs – french advertisers association -  says ” [...] it will slow down developments and productivity. Google and other advertising platform giants will not suffer from this tax. But indeed the French SME, sole traders, charities, not the large corporations…”

Online advertising market reached €uro 2 billion in 2008, France online ad spend in the first half of 2010 passed €1 billion ($1.4 billion), according to several sources…

Some say that Google’s recent investment in France ($ 10 million investment in a French cultural center & R&D center to be opened in France) was a hidden failed attempt to soften France and forget about that nicknamed ‘Google tax’. It did not prevent anything!

YouTube campaigns & FaceBook Groups have been created to rally companies and individuals to the cause, but the buzz did not take…

The french Finance Minister -a.k.a Bercy – is in favor to postpone the ‘Google tax’. Will it be the likes of Google, Apple, Yahoo! etc salvation?

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Today Monday November 29th is ‘Cyber Monday‘. The biggest shopping day of the year?

Or is it Monday December 6th 2010 referred as ‘Mega Monday‘ where sales are expected to hit over €uro 1million per minute…

October 2010, IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales [...]]]> Today Monday November 29th is ‘Cyber Monday‘. The biggest shopping day of the year?

Or is it Monday December 6th 2010 referred as ‘Mega Monday‘ where sales are expected to hit over €uro 1million per minute…

October 2010, IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index is expected to increase by 16 per cent in 2010 vs. 2009 for online Christmas sales, reaching £6.4billion.

Different forecasts come from various sources. For instance, Hi Media expect the European online Christmas sales to represent over 10 per cent of the European overall Christmas sales, representing respectively €uro 32 billion of the overall €uro 313 billion.

The UK, Germany and France will represent the highest total spend for the Christmas 2010 season, accounting for 65 per cent of the overall European Christmas spend:

1. UK – €uro 77.2 billion
2. Germany – €uro 64.5 billion
3. France – €uro 62.5 billion
4. Spain – €uro 31.2 billion

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are forecasted to spend the least overall at €5.4bn, €6.1bn and €9.6bn respectively.

How strong is online Christmas shopping in Europe?

1. UK – highest in Europe with €uro 13 billion – i.e 17% of the overall 2010 UK retail Christmas sales
2. Germany – €uro 8.2 billion – i.e 13% of the overall 2010 Germany retail Christmas sales
3. France – €uro 6.3 billion – i.e 10% of the overall 2010 France retail Christmas sales
4. Spain – €uro 624 million- i.e 2% of the overall 2010 Spain retail Christmas sales

Norway will spend €uro 0.73 billion online and Denmark €uro 0.61 billion.

Pierpaolo Zollo, from Kelkoo says: “Internet sales across Europe are set to be more important than ever this Christmas, with consumers spending record amounts online, and online commerce acting as the primary driving force for overall retail growth during the festive season.”

Don’t forget to track your online audience thanks to free simple tools such as Google Analytics and make sure you run an online reputation management program.

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Everyone in the online world depends on having good data in some way or other. Until ComScore rolled out qSearch in 150 countries, there was very little comparable data available to compare activities in different countries. Frequently, people [...]]]> Everyone in the online world depends on having good data in some way or other. Until ComScore rolled out qSearch in 150 countries, there was very little comparable data available to compare activities in different countries. Frequently, people would ask me what I thought of Hitwise and mostly I had to reply that I had very little to do with it (difficult if most of your work is not in English to consider an English-only tool). Now Experian is changing that by launching Hitwise in France. So that means we will know what’s going on in France right – or “Now You Know” to coin a well known phrase.

Well it’s not really quite like that. Note that in the introduction above I’m talking about ‘compare’ as opposed to measure. What the Hitwise move will do is to give us a different basis for comparing activity in France. It does not mean that we have either not been able to measure things before OR that there is no data available on French websites as the Xiti tool from AT Internet has been around for a long time. Whilst AT Internet does have operations outside France – France is its home base.

There is also the famous Baromètre which measures the shares of French, German, Spanish and UK search engines. Currently, this is showing Google advancing against all-comers – though when you are Google and you have 94.2% in Germany, 92.8% in Spain, 89.2% in France and 90.8% in the UK – are you really worried about Bing which performs best in France with 3.6%. Time will only tell.

Experian launches Hitwise Internet measurement services for France

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French people cannot get rid off their mobile phones, according to a TNS Sofres study, conducted amongst 1200 people older than 12 years old late August 2009.

Indeed, 79% of them declared owning one, with 20% never letting it go, even [...]]]> French people cannot get rid off their mobile phones, according to a TNS Sofres study, conducted amongst 1200 people older than 12 years old late August 2009.

Indeed, 79% of them declared owning one, with 20% never letting it go, even when going to the bathroom (about 8%). Moreover, about 23% use it to go on the internet, and this percentage goes up to 41% for the ones having between 12 to 24 years old. However, only about 4%  use their mobile phone to watch TV, but they are most than 62%who use them to take pictures and 31% to make videos.

Finally 36% of the French people believe that their mobile phones are dangerous for their health, 25% doubt about it, and about 25% more think that it hasn’t been enough time to assess what long-terms effects there might be.

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ContactLab has released the results of a new study on the use of Email amongst European users. Habits, trends, and use of newsletters is examined for the following markets:

The results are organized [...]]]>  

ContactLab has released the results of a new study on the use of Email amongst European users. Habits, trends, and use of newsletters is examined for the following markets:

• Italy
• Spain
• France
• Germany
• UK

The results are organized in different reports and in local languages (and English), along with a European Report released in all languages (English, Italian, French, Spanish, German)

You may download the reports here – Email validation is required

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Twitter announced via its blog that it is adding support for French, Italian, German and Spanish to the languages supported by its interface. Until now the system has only been available in English and Japanese. In its [...]]]> Twitter announced via its blog that it is adding support for French, Italian, German and Spanish to the languages supported by its interface. Until now the system has only been available in English and Japanese. In its blog post it describes these languages as “Commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support”. The languages will be added via a crowdsourcing interface.

There are some issues with this announcement. Firstly, the fact that Twitter has chosen to go for “FIGS” in other words French, Italian, German and Spanish is a habit which is very typical of English speaking companies because they assume they must be the most important languages. They may be, but they may also not be. What Twitter should have done (maybe they have and they don’t want to say) is checked what languages their users are working in and followed that – always play to your strengths. There’s a good chance they should have been looking at languages like Korean, Russian and Arabic – rather than FIGS. Another factor to take into account is that the FIGS languages use the same alphabet as English so users will, and have been, able to interpret what it’s all about more easily than speakers of Russian, Korean or Arabic.

The second issue is they’re using crowdsourcing ‘because they have a small team’. The Twitter interface is not large in localisation terms and it would have consumed less of their resources to have used traditional localisation for this small number of languages. It only makes sense to use crowdsourcing if they’re planning to localise in a very large number of languages. Dear Twitter, a few person team on a project like this is HUGE for most people not small!

Equally, they’re not even looking at the major language issues which Twitter faces such as people who wish to Tweet in multiple languages. Currently, some are opting to Tweet in two accounts to use two languages to avoid losing followers. Twitter should add more sophistication to this side of their system.

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Via Adage, ComScore has revealed the Google share by market showing the Google domination in many markets alongside discrepancies such as Korea where Google has a dismal share of the market. Western Europe has stronger Google shares than [...]]]> Via Adage, ComScore has revealed the Google share by market showing the Google domination in many markets alongside discrepancies such as Korea where Google has a dismal share of the market. Western Europe has stronger Google shares than the US but the Mountain View monolith is most powerful in Brazil, Turkey and Italy.


Unfortunately, with China and Russia missing – the picture is somewhat one-sided.

Google Share by Market – ComScore

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The French are using more and more their mobile phones to get into the internet. Studies (Ipsos MediaCT) show that in April 2008, only 28% of them were surfing the WWW, and now they are more than 31%. Not such [...]]]> The French are using more and more their mobile phones to get into the internet. Studies (Ipsos MediaCT) show that in April 2008, only 28% of them were surfing the WWW, and now they are more than 31%. Not such a big jump though, but there is more to learn in this figures: there is truly a new way to use their smartphones and iPhones in France.

French use their smartphones more and more often to go on the web: 29% of them go online at least once a day. This increase and trends was mostly noticed for the 25-34 years old  (+40%) and the 35-50 years old (+38%). What is even more amazing, is that 9% of them, say that they go on the web only through their smartphones now. And finally, 38% wish they could go on the web more often, but what is stopping them, is that most sites are not fitted for their mobile phones.

What is the primary use of the internet on a mobile phone in France? 73% of their time is spend on Geolocalisation. Then, they like downloading music, games, or chat with friends. On the other hand, they do not feel annoyed by the advertising which are not too intrusive. 34% have declared, they have been already looking for product’s informations or a brand, and 18% have clicked on banners.

So why all those changes? Well, since the end of April, the iPhone is sold through the 3 major phone companies, while it was sold only by Orange until then. People were not willing to change their phone companies to get an iPhone!

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How can the French be so contradictory? 81% is the number of French people who are not trusting the social media websites, such as Facebook, Viadeo, Myspace.. They believe that their personnal datas are not safe, and feel that anyone [...]]]> How can the French be so contradictory? 81% is the number of French people who are not trusting the social media websites, such as Facebook, Viadeo, Myspace.. They believe that their personnal datas are not safe, and feel that anyone could get a look at them and use them. However 60% still think that it is impossible nowadays not to be part of such a website, and share informations on the internet.

If we look at the figures, especially for Facebook, until the user interface was translated from English, less than 500 000 users were registered by the end of 2007. Once the UI has been translated into French, Facebook became the number one social media website within a year, having more then 4 million users. Last month (April 2009), the word “Facebook” has been the query the most typed in the Search Engines in France: it has been searched 38.3 million times.  And with 13 677 000 visits, the website was ranked 13th in march 09.

France is a land of contrast, where until not so long ago, French people would not trust to buy something from a TLD not ending by FR. Now this does not apply anymore, and whatever a French would tell you and admit, we are following  the trends, even if it comes from the US.

*source Mediametrie, Harris Interactive

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Following the expansion of their trademark policy to the UK last year, Google has widened its looser trademark policy which basically allows all-comers to bid on trademark keywords increasing the cost of trademark advertising via the number one search [...]]]> Following the expansion of their trademark policy to the UK last year, Google has widened its looser trademark policy which basically allows all-comers to bid on trademark keywords increasing the cost of trademark advertising via the number one search engine and allowing competitors to aggressively buy each others ‘marks. The new change expands the ‘we won’t intervene’ approach to a total of 190 countries. The change comes into force on June 4th.


However, Google has sidestepped the key European countries with the strongest legal rules and where cases have cost Google most in fines (see list below). From calculations, the removal of protection for trademarked terms increases advertiser costs by as much as 80% – as well as taking revenue from additional advertisers on those terms. The policy, therefore, enables Google to increase its adverising take from advertisers. The approach also affects major global brands most significantly – because they generally spend proportionately more on advertising their brands because it is those brands – and the associated products – which have made them global.


Google has long struggled to persuade blue chip advertisers to move more of their advertising budgets to Google Adwords – this is step which leaves them with no choice. However, it is a dangerous move as it could also contribute to tipping the ROI see-saw towards other newer forms of promotion such as social media and Twitter.


Having received no significant kick-back from its UK change of a year ago – it’s no surprise that this is being rolled out now. Probably, another year will pass before more countries – especially European ones – are added. I predict that France, where the courts have levied the largest fines against Google, will be the last to go.


So the following countries (European Union countries in bold) will not see the change – at least yet. Via Search Engine Land

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Czech Republic
• Cyprus
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Greece
• Germany
• Hungary
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Australia
• Bahamas
• Brazil
• China
• Iceland
• Macau
• New Zealand
• Norway
• South Korea
• Switzerland
• Taiwan

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]]> http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-expands-new-trademark-policy-but-sidesteps-europe/07/05/2009/feed/ 3 http://www.multilingual-search.com/miva-calls-it-a-day-in-france/27/04/2009/ http://www.multilingual-search.com/miva-calls-it-a-day-in-france/27/04/2009/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:21:30 +0000 Andy Atkins-Krüger http://www.multilingual-search.com/miva-calls-it-a-day-in-france/27/04/2009 : 

Abondance reports that Miva has announced the closure of its French operation. The service will cease on the 28th April and all publishers are to be paid their due fees. Advertisers will also be reimbursed any [...]]]> Abondance reports that Miva has announced the closure of its French operation. The service will cease on the 28th April and all publishers are to be paid their due fees. Advertisers will also be reimbursed any unspent fees.

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]]> http://www.multilingual-search.com/miva-calls-it-a-day-in-france/27/04/2009/feed/ 1 http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-takes-8957-of-french-search-engine-traffic-march/17/04/2009/ http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-takes-8957-of-french-search-engine-traffic-march/17/04/2009/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:02:44 +0000 Andy Atkins-Krüger http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-takes-8957-of-french-search-engine-traffic-march/17/04/2009 : 

The newly named AT Internet Institute, formerly XiTiMonitor, has published its survey of French search engine activity for March putting Google just under 90% – this is despite a change in their methodology which now measures search engine traffic [...]]]> The newly named AT Internet Institute, formerly XiTiMonitor, has published its survey of French search engine activity for March putting Google just under 90% – this is despite a change in their methodology which now measures search engine traffic in France emanating only from France and not from other countries. Live Search is in 2nd place with just under 3%, followed by Yahoo on 2.5%, AOL and Orange at just under 2% each.




Search engine shares France – March 09

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]]> http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-takes-8957-of-french-search-engine-traffic-march/17/04/2009/feed/ 6 http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-to-digitise-500000-books-in-the-bibliotheque-municipale-de-lyon/17/07/2008/ http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-to-digitise-500000-books-in-the-bibliotheque-municipale-de-lyon/17/07/2008/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:03:58 +0000 Andy Atkins-Krüger http://www.multilingual-search.com/google-to-digitise-500000-books-in-the-bibliotheque-municipale-de-lyon/17/07/2008 : 

Abondance brings us further news of the Google book publishing initiative which sees Lyon, France’s second most important city (sorry Marseilles), jumping the gun on Paris and cooperating with Google. The digitisation will involve those books which [...]]]> Abondance brings us further news of the Google book publishing initiative which sees Lyon, France’s second most important city (sorry Marseilles), jumping the gun on Paris and cooperating with Google. The digitisation will involve those books which are out of copyright.

The library houses an important collection of books in the French language and some rare editions from authors such as Nostradamus and Newton. Not all of the books in the collection are in the French language as the Italian, Latin, English, German and Spanish languages also feature prominently. It is the second largest collection in France after the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.

Other libraries in Europe which are also involved in the project include Lausanne in Switzerland, and Ghent in Belgium.

For what it’s worth, Lyon is also a beautiful city – speaking as a former resident!

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