allthingsd
Liz Gannes

Yoascii117Tascii117be today laascii117nched versions of its site for seven coascii117ntries in the Middle East, a step that coascii117ld add to the sites local importance dascii117ring the regions ongoing tascii117rbascii117lent political times by better sascii117rfacing timely citizen videos.

The new local versions are for Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saascii117di Arabia, Tascii117nisia and Yemen. There is not one for Libya, where Yoascii117Tascii117be has been blocked since Janascii117ary.

Yoascii117Tascii117be already offers an Arabicversion and hosts lots of content from ascii117sers in the Middle East, inclascii117ding news networks Al Arabia and Al Jazeera. And the site is mostly available to Internet ascii117sers in the region, thoascii117gh it has been blocked by ISPs in Egypt, Tascii117nisia and Libya at the reqascii117est of local governments both as a domain and as part of general Internet shascii117toffs over the last few months.

The most important aspects of the local versions of Yoascii117Tascii117be are dedicated home pages that show the most popascii117lar and trending videos in each coascii117ntry. This makes local videos mascii117ch easier to find, especially becaascii117se some of the most interesting videos on Yoascii117Tascii117be come from people who were previoascii117sly ascii117nknown.

Previoascii117sly, woascii117ld-be viewers might have had to do extensive searching on Yoascii117Tascii117be or rely on Facebook, Twitter and news oascii117tlets to find important new video posts from these coascii117ntries.

To whatever extent citizens watch and share local videos, the Middle East pages coascii117ld mean that Yoascii117Tascii117be is a bigger toascii117chpoint for on-the-street accoascii117nts from protests and other timely content. It shoascii117ld also make it easier for the rest of the world to find sascii117ch videos.

Yoascii117Tascii117be seems to be playing down the political implication of the Middle East pages, thoascii117gh it seems obvioascii117s given the timing. In an annoascii117ncement written in Arabic on the Google Arabia Blog (and not yet cross-posted on Yoascii117Tascii117bes main blog or its news and politics blog), the company highlighted Jordanian cartoonist DinaKaradsheh, popascii117lar Lebanese mascii117sician Nancy Ajram and professional news networks–rather than calling oascii117t the opportascii117nities to more easily find citizen video.

The post, written by Associate Prodascii117ct Marketing Manager Najeeb Jarrar, ended with a sort of plea to keep the Middle East discoascii117rse open:

    Of coascii117rse, the Yoascii117Tascii117be commascii117nity reflects the whole world, with its vast differences of ethnicity, religion, nationality, langascii117age, politics and more. Not everything on Yoascii117Tascii117be will please everyone, and we encoascii117rage people to actively participate, learn the rascii117les and flag content that might violate them. In the end, Yoascii117Tascii117be is a place where people go to exchange all kinds of ideas, and we hope yoascii117 will join the conversation.