sovidiu - 12:03 pm on Feb 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

Well, as far as I can see, people living in the Eastern Europe are trying to level their concepts with the mentalities of the ones living in the EU. For instance, we (I am living in Romania, a country that wants to become a member of the European Council) are continously looking for new ideas that either get to us via the Internet or the mass-media. So I think that most of us living in this area search for innovation, by "fraudulent" inspiration (a misjudged term that sort of defines our country's Internet activity) or simply by borrowing the US/EU trends. On the other hand, people living in the Scandinavian region are defining new trends themselves, since they decided that it would be best for them not to become a member of the EU. So when you say "What is Yahoo?" to a Romanian (and by extension, to an Eastern Europe person), he would reply with "free email address provider" (what is free is always efficient - they say) or with "Old logo", while when addressing the same question to a Scandinavian, he would use "inefficient web directory, overcharged with information and American advertising banners that we do not really like". It's no wonder MSN is a leader in this area, it being able to always have that *spark* most people look for when browsing a web site. Simply because *spark* means "creation", and "creation" stands as a founding element of the European culture. Apart from analyzing the mercantile offer, the Scandinavians look for a "creative side" of the product. Simply because their living-rate (I'm not sure this is correctly written) is at a higher standard then most of the other Europeans. And they would rather like colorful (Englishmen should read: "colourful"), lively sites such as MSN (with its rainbow-like logo) than pragmatic, over-efficient ones such as Yahoo's is. Yahoo is not a tradition, just the first one that got a fine seat in this train we call "the Internet". :)