Voices en Español

It’s an interesting question and one that has been raised in Europe as fear of Google dominance takes hold. Following up on the post I made yesterday about the Instituto Cervantes, I went looking for more info and stats about Spanish presence on the web. I came across the blog of José Antonio Millán, a Spanish linguist and author of the book Internet y el español. In an op-ed he wrote for El País, Millán mentions Jean-Nöel Jeanneney, director of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, who is distressed and dismayed by the idea that Google, a for-profit American corporation, is the standard point of entry for Europeans seeking information. Quel horreur! Monsiuer Jeanneney’s bright idea? Create European search engines specific to European languages.

But Millán isn’t convinced. After all, the amount of time and money it would take to build them would be huge and there’s no guarantee of success. Also, with Spanish, for example, there needs to be more digital content written in Spanish. He mentions two efforts connected to Spanish: Noxtrum and the Panhispanic search engine of the Instituto Cervantes. Millán hits the nail on the head when he says that Europeans need to get real. Here is my approximate translation of what he wrote:

“The companies that dominate the Internet were born in garages or U.S. universities. They invested money to take a chance and they dominated the market. We need to promote research and development in our (Spanish) universites, which by the way generate very few patents, and encourage the creation of small businesses…that can attract investment. We can’t complain when others are doing what we haven’t done ourselves. What Europe needs is not to duplicate what already exists but rather to have a spirit of innovation from no matter where it comes.”

To read the entire article in Spanish, click here.