Google, Yahoo, and Skype users in Iran should be extra cautious online from now on.  Evidence suggests that the Iranian government organized an attack focused on obtaining nine secure digital certificates related to major sites. Note that this episode hasn’t …

Some U.S. export controls and sanctions programs, which prohibited software downloads to Iran have now been lifted, and Google has announced that it is making Google Earth, Picasa, and Chrome available for download in that country. 

It looks like Google may be ready to wade into another controversial censorship vs. availability of services situation.  A high-ranking corporate representative has welcomed the U.S. Treasury’s decision to allow the exportation of online communications tools to Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.

Yesterday, Iranian authorities enacted a ban on Gmail, saying they’d introduce a government-sponsored (and presumably government-monitored) email service to replace it.  Now, as YouTube’s seeing an influx of protest videos, Google’s taken a moment to mark the Iranian government’s lack of control.

Online tools have played important roles in the Iranian protests; right from the start, the appearance of videos on YouTube and trending topics on Twitter helped spread awareness about the disputed presidential election.  And YouTube doesn’t want anyone to forget that it’s still doing its part.

Google announced that Google Translate now offers translation between the English and Persian (Farsi) languages. With all of the news discussion from within and all over the world surrounding Iran, the company presumably felt that having this available would be beneficial for those trying to stay informed.

Comedians and cynics may have to shelve jokes concerning Twitter’s uselessness for at least a few weeks.  The site has started to play a significant role in Iran’s election crisis, and executives have even rescheduled "a critical network upgrade" in order to keep it available.

Iran has lifted its ban on Facebook after blocking it to prevent supporters of a moderate in the presidential race from using it for his campaign.

"A few minutes ago Facebook was unblocked," Ilna news agency reported. The agency is considered to be close to the reformist candidates running in the June 12 election.

The Iranian government is currently blocking in excess of five million Web sites for hosting content that it deems as unethical and anti-Islamic.

During a conference in Iran, the Prosecutor General Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi said most of the sites were blocked because they "contained unethical content" such as pornography and anti-Islamic sentiment.

We no longer have to worry only about what President Bush will say to provoke the nuclear-arms seeking Iranian government. Google’s thrown its hat into the ring too!

The Iranian government has plans to block private access to the Internet for the general legislative election on March 14, Iranian news agencies are reporting.

The reasoning behind the shutting down of the Internet was inconsistent. "Shutting down the Internet service will depend on security plans and on the Ministry of Telecommunication," said Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister.

The managing editor of a conservative Iranian Web site was arrested for "poisoning the election atmosphere," a Tehran general prosecutor said.

In a blog post on the Nosazi (Renovation) Web site, Hossein Nobakhtian took the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini to task for going against the legacy of the founder of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The post attacked Hassan Khomeini for not agreeing with hardliners and their decision to not include moderates on a list of candidates for the March 14 parliamentary elections.

Who knows how it happened. Maybe the stars aligned. Maybe somebody hacked the system. Maybe whoever’s in charge of the images that appear on the giant video screens in the middle of an Iranian street is about to be in big, big trouble.

Yahoo and Microsoft have taken Iran off the country lists of their email services as the U.S. has imposed tougher sanctions on the Islamic country.

The rapidly spreading story about Iran’s censorship of Google and Gmail now has to compete with another story: that of Iran undoing the blocking at its ISPs.

Iran yesterday blocked a number of top Web sites. Among them are YouTube, Web encyclopedia, Wikipedia and Amazon.com. Other sites that are being censored are the online movie database IMBD.com, news services like the New York Times and BBC Farsi.

Forget the much-hyped competition between Google and its corporate rivals. Microsoft and Yahoo may have deep pockets, but the search engine giant’s newest enemy may have nukes. The Iranian government has taken issue with a film on Google Video that apparently calls the nation’s borders into question.

Today, the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to start talks with Iran about it becoming a member, now that the United States has put an end to its longstanding veto.

A natural gas pipeline running from Iran to India may be ready by the end of 2009 depending on if an agreement is reached with Tehran.