FRANCE'S MYSTERIOUS EMBRACE OF BLOGS

In light of the article there is not much mystery. A completely dopey headline.

PARIS July 27, 2006 (IHT) - Already famed for angry labor strikes and philosophical debates in smoke-filled cafés, the French have now brought these passions online to become some of the world's most intensive bloggers.

How many more times must we suffer this clichéd nation des philosophes cliché? If the France were a sink of deep-think we'd see a lot less of this and this and this and this. Just how long can an entire nation ride on the backs of a small historical band of dispassionate thinkers?

Complaining, speaking loudly, having an opinion about anything, contemplating the mirror, and reading the dust jacket of One-Dimensional Man do not certify one as a philosopher.

More than three million Internet users, or more than 12 percent of those online in France, have created a blog, according to a study released in June by the ratings agency Médiamétrie.

"With so many blogs, I'm hoping for fewer protests and strikes in Paris this fall," said Loïc Le Meur, a pioneer French blogger and European managing director of the blog-hosting company Six Apart. "If people can express themselves online, then maybe they don't need to block the streets."

French blogs stand out in other measurable ways. They are noticeably longer,* more critical, more negative, more egocentric and more provocative than their U.S. counterparts, said Laurent Florès, the French-born, New York-based chief executive of CRM Metrix, a company that monitors blogs and other online conversations on behalf of companies seeking feedback on their brands.

"Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion," he said. "French bloggers never compromise their opinions."

This seems as nice a way as we've seen to say "pigheaded".

"It is clear that in France we have very large egos and love to speak about ourselves," Le Meur said. "If you look at Germans or Scandinavians - off- line and on the Internet - they really don't talk about themselves."

But blogs are having a greater effect on French society, said Jean-Michel Billaut, an adviser to BNP Paribas Bank on Internet issues.

"The Minitel was a classic, centrally controlled and top-down creation of the French elite," Billaut said. "Blogs have been embraced by ordinary people, and this will flip the rigid power pyramid of French society."

"Consumers in France have few outlets to make their views heard, so blogs have become their counterpower," [Cyril Klein, marketing director of Scanblog, a blog-monitoring firm in Paris,] said, citing as an example Chiennes de garde, a Web site that fights against sexist displays of women. "The difficulty for brands is that French culture encourages people to express unhappiness and criticize."

[Benjamin Griveaux, director of Web strategy for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister who in 2004 was among the first politicians to start a blog,] reckons the popularity of blogs comes down to France being a nation where each and every citizen thinks he or she should be in charge.

"We had 16 presidential candidates at the last election, and we will probably have the same number next year," Griveaux said. "Every French person wants to run the country - a blog is the next best option."

* It is not clear whether the writer is aware that the French language alone will inflate a comparable text in English by a third or more.

PFFT (What is this?): Le rêve du nombriliste 4 | Rayonnement français ½

well, better complaining on blogs then start shooting people in a school, or in a israeli meeting place don't you think ?