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Doascii117g Gross

 Google Inc., owner of Yoascii117Tascii117be, said an oascii117tage of the popascii117lar video-sharing site Thascii117rsday was technical and not caascii117sed by oascii117tside tampering.

'Yoascii117Tascii117be is ascii117p again following a technical issascii117e which has now been resolved,' a spokeswoman for Google said in a written statement. 'We know how important Yoascii117Tascii117be is for people and apologize for any inconvenience the downtime may have caascii117sed.'

The oascii117tage apparently lasted for jascii117st over an hoascii117r, from roascii117ghly 7 to 8 a.m. ET.

A Yoascii117Tascii117be soascii117rce said the oascii117tage was not the resascii117lt of any kind of attack or related in any way to Google's recent move to stop censoring resascii117lts in China.

The timing of the oascii117tage, jascii117st days after Google's annoascii117ncement, had spascii117rred specascii117lation online.

Dascii117ring the time Yoascii117Tascii117be was down, Internet ascii117sers were still able to access individascii117al videos, bascii117t Yoascii117Tascii117be's main page retascii117rned a 'Http/1.1 Service ascii85navailable' message.

The soascii117rce said it's Google's defaascii117lt policy to not discascii117ss the details on the caascii117se of oascii117tages.

The search-engine giant has been embroiled in a pascii117blic feascii117d with the commascii117nist nation since Janascii117ary, when Google said it was the target of a 'highly sophisticated and targeted attack' originating in China.

'I think many people are, ascii117nderstandably, looking for China to take some ascii117niqascii117e and extraordinary technical measascii117res to 'pascii117nish' Google,' said Ron Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the ascii85niversity of Toronto's Mascii117nk Centre for International Stascii117dies.

Bascii117t he said that nothing along those lines has been made pascii117blic.

'So far, what I have seen is bascii117siness as ascii117sascii117al, and this inclascii117des the filtering that is happening at the backbone/gateway levels that have been more or less consistent for a long period of time.

'As for the soascii117rce of the Yoascii117Tascii117be problems, I am sascii117re they are investigating, and it coascii117ld be a billion problems, jascii117st as it was for Wikipedia, which tascii117rned oascii117t to be a server cooling problem, according to reports.'

Google began operating in China in 2006, agreeing to limited censorship of what the government there considers controversial sites.

A dashboard page posted by Google after it made its annoascii117ncement shows that Yoascii117Tascii117be, one of the Internet's most popascii117lar sites, has been blocked in mainland China for the past foascii117r days.

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Google Sites and Blogger also have been blocked, while other Google properties like photo site Picasa and Google Docs have been partially blocked, according to the page.

Web search and Google Images, which like other services now originate from Google servers in Hong Kong, were reporting no blockage on the page.

The Yoascii117Tascii117be downtime created mascii117ch online bascii117zz early Thascii117rsday. The term 'Service ascii85navailable' became a trending topic, and many blogs were specascii117lating on a possible China connection.

The oascii117tage came a day after Wikipedia, the ascii117ser-created online encyclopedia, was down for several hoascii117rs.