Google, Facebook Post Iran-Centric Language Updates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 19, 2009 - 8:44am.

Los Angeles - Google (NASD: GOOG) and Facebook this week both posted Persian (Farsi) language updates to their Web services, a nod to making them more readily available as the post-election events unfold in Iran.

Google added Farsi to Google Translate, meaning that users can now translate any text from Farsi into English and vice versa.

"Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath," Facebook's Eric Kwan wrote in a blog post.

"Much of the content created and shared has been in Persian-the native language of Iran -- but people have had to navigate the site in English or other languages."

To that end, Facebook added a Persian version of its entire site, which was developed with the help of "more than 400 Persian speakers who submitted thousands of individual translations of the site."

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=97122772130