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Google's rise is connected to a general advancement in internet usage patterns in western European countries. Google users are much more likely to search to do worldwide searches than Lycos, MSN or Yahoo users.
Here is a good discussion on the relation between US and local versions [webmasterworld.com] of major SEs.
It's not surprising that Google opens an office in Hamburg, to be followed by offices in Italy, France and Netherlands [webmasterworld.com] first half 2002.
Don't forget: Europe just outgrew the US by numbers of internet users. Hopefully you will see much more of those referals in the near future.
Usually the keywords relate to product names (ie that translate the same). Sadly this client doesn't sell outside the UK - but otherwise this is great information to persuade clients to have pages translated.