National Search Engine And National Social Networks

As part of the National Internet, the Iranian government has also developed services such as a national search engine and national social networks, which are designed and implemented largely by the Ministry of Telecommunication’s Information Technology Company. Hadi Malek, research director at the Information Technology Company, first announced the creation of the national search engine, “Ya Hagh” (Oh Truth/Holy Truth), on August 28, 2010, as a replacement for Yahoo. Independent analysts believe this search engine has been singularly unsuccessful in attracting Iranian users, and indeed has become fodder for jokes inside Iran. Other search engines have also been developed since then, but none have proved able to attract significant numbers of users. Similarly, national social networks created by the government and designed to appear very similar to Facebook, such as Face Nama and Face Koob, have also proved notably unsuccessful in attracting users, as has the Iranian version of YouTube, www.youtube.ir.