The first nations to benefit from the development are Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.

Changes include translations of the site into local languages where necessary, the presentation of country-specific ratings and comments, and local search.

While YouTube has licensing agreements with content providers in some of these nations, it faces copyright infringement lawsuits from others, notably soccer's English Premier League.

Additional localised versions are expected in the near future.

As far as censorship is concerned, The Guardian quotes YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley as saying "We are working with Google to create effective policies and to allow control of what is used on the site. We want to respect local laws and local cultures."

Local versions of YouTube presumably make it easier for Google to offer advertising packages that appeal to companies that want to reach specific geographical or cultural markets. Whether it will make YouTube more or less attractive remains to be seen. In any case, the main (now "United States") YouTube site can be reached from the Country link at the top right of the various home pages.

"We're extremely excited to be offering YouTube in the languages of so many of our users, since it allows people to express themselves and unite around interesting, relevant videos. We're looking forward to seeing communities develop between people in their local communities as well as among people around the world." said Sakina Arsiwala, international manager at YouTube.

In related news, YouTube has also launched YouTube Mobile, accessible via most major carriers and on most Internet-enabled mobiles. The company warns that has video is so data-intensive, users should be on an unlimited data plan.