Google Unites Europe

The fact remains that Google is a company that is based in the United States. That makes it an American company, not an agent of American imperialism. It's quite a stretch to label Google Print as a sinister attempt to finish what America has already started -- the export of the best and worst that we can offer.

Maybe the answer is that we will end up having two online libraries of world literature -- one run by a company that dares to think big and do it unconventionally, and one that is a massive effort by nearly two-dozen countries that figure their subjects, er, taxpayers will gladly foot the bill to preserve knowledge for future generations. Perhaps there's no need for a battle at all, but if this is the way things are going to be, then the only rule ought to be that these online treasure troves be open to everyone, regardless of nationality.

And let's not forget that once this "tempete" in a teapot is over and done with, there's a lot more literature all over the world that we haven't even begun to think of yet. What about South America? Africa? Asia? All those books written in alphabets that many of us can't even read? What will we do then? As always, I'd love to hear your ideas. Maybe Google is listening too.

Body Spray and the Teenage Blogger

If you must spend all your time blogging, the least you can do is smell fresh and clean. AdAge.com reported that Procter & Gamble Co. is using blogs for the first time ever to hook more teenaged girls into using its Secret deodorant. Here's the lowdown: "P&G is using Secret Sparkle Body Spray and its range of teeny-bopper-oriented scents to lure entry-level consumers for the segment-leading women's deodorant. To do so, it's using an unusual campaign that includes sampling and iPod giveaways via fast-growing tween fashion mecca Limited Too as well as animated TV ads and... blog marketing."

"The Limited Too effort includes samples for all customers along with a co-branded sweepstakes giving away 300 iPod Shuffles," Ad Age reported, paraphrasing Dave Knox, assistant brand manager at P&G in charge of the project. "The Shuffle is an entry-level product with a value price point, too, making it a natural fit with Sparkle, Mr. Knox said. The body sprays are also integrated into a popular tween online hangout, Neopets.com, as a reward for which girls can redeem the Neopoints they earn. P&G last week launched Secret's first blog-marketing program at SparkleBody-Spray.com."

Knox said that "Girls have started using deodorant younger and younger. ... It used to be 12 or 13 was kind of the entry point, and that's slowly ratcheted down each year. ... If you don't target the consumer in her formative years, you're not going to be relevant through the rest of her life." Hey, man, anything for a free iPod.

Low Blow in the Lowlands

Citizens of the Netherlands soon could find themselves paying a new tax targeted at their iPods and other digital music devices. The UK's Register reported that the proposed tax on MP3 players will become law within months, barring intervention from the European Union. "The idea of all levy based legislation is that some form of copyright collections agency collects tax by imposing a surcharge at the point of sale for any storage devices that could possibly be used to store pirated works. This certainly extends to the iPod which has up to 60 GB of storage, and which can store MP3 files," the Register reported. "The charge will be levied against every MP3 player, and is effectively a tax on the MP3 format."

The tax could come to as much as $4.30 per gigabyte, which the Register said could tack on more than $200 to the cost of a high-end iPod -- which already runs as high as $450.

Just in case you wonder where the Register comes down on this topic, be enlightened by this sentence: "Levies are an outmoded and unfair way of rewarding existing monopolies and are only ever put in place to keep ancient publishing copyright agencies in business."

Dutch readers -- if you know more about this than The Register, drop me a line.

Send links and comments to robertDOTmacmillanATwashingtonpost.com.