In the largely limitless wilds of the internet, it's easy to forget that some services aren't necessarily available to everyone. For instance, US and UN trade restrictions with Iran mean that many companies - specifically American ones - can't offer software for download to the middle-eastern state.
Now, though, Google has been granted permission to allow downloads to Iranian citizens and for the first time Chrome, Picasa and Google Earth will be available in the country. However, Washington's rules mean that Google still has to block IP addresses associated with the Iranian government.
There are some other limitations as well - specifically, Google Talk is still being blocked, although this is the company's choice. According to Scott Rubin (courtesy of The Guardian), the search giant's head of public policy for EMEA, there may be security implications if dissidents decided to use the service to communicate, and "we're not confident with the security we could provide to keep those conversations private. Any government that wants to might be able to get into those conversations, and we wouldn't want to provide a tool with the illusion of privacy if it wasn't completely secure".
Since the trade restrictions don't cover web-based services, Google search, Gmail and YouTube are already accessible in Iran - although the latter has been blocked by Tehran since being used by protesters following the 2009 elections.
Rubin claimed that the search-giant's actions were not commercially motivated, but intended to help enable access to information. He also denied claims that the FBI - or any other government agency - had an interest in expanding access to Google technology and software in Iran.
