In response to the events surrounding the Iranian election last week, Google and Facebook have both added the Persian language Farsi to their capabilities. The Persian version of Facebook will be available starting tonight. The Facebook blog post announcing the new version is here.
Facebook says the Persian version was already being developed but it decided to unveil it because of the sudden increase in activity with the Iranian elections and protests. Facebook adds the disclaimer that the translation is still in rough form.
If your browser is set to Farsi, you should automatically see the Persian version of Facebook. Facebook says that more than 400 Persian speakers submitted thousands of individual translations of the site.
Google has also added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate, making it easy to translate any text from Farsi into English and from English into Farsi. Google, like Facebook, says that the launch of the Persian translation was primarily due to the events taking place in Iran. And like Facebook, Google warns that the translation isn’t perfect. Google also invites people to click on the “contribute a better translation” link if they find a poor translation.
It’s unclear what will happen with Facebook in Iran, under the current situation. FriendFeed was blocked and Twitter seems to be one of the main forms of social communication online in Iran.
This is a welcome development! People can now follow what is happening in Iran without having to wait for a translation from Memri.org
Sorry, but honestly, these sites aren’t going to do anything. Amadinijad is the winner. And there’s not a damn thing a couple silly protests can do about it. Google and Facebook–laughable! Sometimes I hate the tech community for its pompasity.
@Poopy I’m sure there’s reason for points 1, 2 and 3 to be mentioned here: http://www.memr...&ID=IA52609
Tell us how you really feel, Mahmoud.
On a side note, I hope you extremists die in a fire.
I’m surprised it took this long. Iran is a highly educated tech savvy hot spot.
And ya, I think Iran is inevitably an ever-increasing califate.
Like Iranians were futile and hopeless until Twitter and Facebook came to save the day? Please. They’ve been doing just fine without them.
Let’s not start awarding Nobel prizes to Twitter and Facebook just yet. Clearly, they’re also trying to capitalize on an opportunity. Sadly, why didn’t it take until now for either to show an interest in localizing for Iran?
Of course it’s not earth shattering, but it’s good to see a response as inconsequential as it may be. At least it’s sending the right message. If enough people do these little things, it could lead to a big thing – or not.
This is just a BS PR campaign by FB. What is the point of this?
FB TOS forbids people in Iran using FB!!!
Read it yourself:
http://www.face...k.com/terms.php
go to section 4 item 3: You will not use Facebook if you are located in a country embargoed by the U.S., or are on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals.
I believe that includes Iran. This was added voluntarily by FB’s new lawyer, Ted Ullyot who was Alberto Gonzales’ right hand man
a couple of silly protesters? just in tehran there are daily 3 million protesters, daily!
iran is won, the cyber way
Actually, the image in this post shows an arabic translation of facebook. Trust me, I am a native arabic speaker and this is arabic, not farsi.
If it’s Arabic could you translate it? Of curse not.Because it’s my native language and it’s Farsi(Persian).Just letters are same and Farsi has more letters than Arabic(32).So please translate it…
چرا تو تو گرما همچنان ژاکت میپوشی؟نمی پزی؟
Facebook is rocking. I tried Tamil version, always feeling comfortable with native language.
Completely agree with the above comment. The Iranian issue will not be solved by websites adopting a new language. In my opinion adopting these languages in the wake of such events is not a good thing. Looks too much like they are preying on the movement rather than helping it.
While that may not be true, it still is an idea I am sure both companies had to consider.
What in the world do you mean “solved”? Who said these websites solved anything? How would that sentence even make sense? (Twitter troops! Tweet guns!)
No, the point is that the world is watching. That’s it, and that’s huge.
Thank god, I was waiting for this
Typo in third paragraph.. “Google has also added Persion (Farsi) to” should be Persian.
That out of the way…the amount of politics, power and corruption in most 3rd world countries is astounding. Will the translations make a difference, doubtful at best but it’s better than nothing.
According to other sources, Facebook is much more than Twitter in Iran.
http://digital....-during-crisis/
Dear TC, the current snapshot of facebook you have posted is in Arabic not Farsi!!
Leena, FYI, that screenshot is in the Arabic language not Farsi.
Leena, the screenshot in your post is from the Arabic version of Facebook, not Persian.
Just an FYI for those interested, the language used in the above image is Arabic, not Farsi.
Thanks it is corrected now.
That’s interesting. A few days ago I had a post on my facebook wall, and I thought it was just something from another guitarist that I couldn’t read. Now I realize that it may have been important
http://facebook...ustic.guitarist
Whoever you were I’m sorry
very very good news for all iranian
translate it from persian to english and read :
مردم ايران از شما تشكر
Hope this will give much better view of whats going on.
@Poopy
How much Iran’s government pay you?
There are tons of security ppl around … beware.
It must be dictatorship, Obama must thrust his fingers here
It might just be a matter of time before they might totally shut off all forms of media designed to allow other opinions to come out of Iran. But then it’s a good thing – at least for now, the people’s voices are being heard.
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Awesome!
Google translate is sucks ( badly ) , but it’s better than nothing!
THANK YOU GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK!
Dang Eric Kwan speaks Persian. That is awesome
Iranian government has blocked all social networking sites within the country. This topic is irrelevant.
We are very excited about this cause today we launched a chat tool that translates in real time Babelwith.me – leveraging Google’s Translate API and App engine. AND it should be under the radar enough with just launching to be pretty useful!!
plz See this site to view the Photo of this revolation
http://tehranlive.org/
in this 5 days About 40 people have been killed…Dont SAY silly protesters