14 DAY TRIAL // The Mountain View company might prepare a new version of the online video sharing service YouTube as it seems to plan the release of the France edition on June 19. Although there is no official sign concerning this French YouTube, Google Blogoscoped sustained that Google prepared a Press Day in Paris with Marissa Mayer and CEO Eric Schmidt as the main officials. Philipp Lenssen sustains that Google might use this event to announce YouTube French, a new domain that might represent the first step for regional versions of the online video sharing service.
"This rumor comes via the newspaper Les Echos as well as Agence France-Press (AFP), who says France Televisions told them they're in talks with Google about sharing their TV programs on YouTube," Philipp Lenssen said. "Of course it might make sense for YouTube to have local sites in other European countries too. YouTube.de for instance is already owned by YouTube Inc., and the last administrative change to the domain was at the beginning of this month," he added.
A few days ago, the first rumors concerning a new version of YouTube were coming from Taiwan, where one of the YouTube founders talked about the future of the online video sharing service. According to Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, the parent company Google might release a new version of the online video sharing service as more than half of all the users are coming from outside the US. However, it's not quite clear if the search giant debuts the new version of YouTube on June 19 but some of the European domains are already owned by the company. For example, YouTube.de is owned by YouTube Inc.
"At this time, YouTube.fr, YouTube.de, YouTube.co.uk, YouTube.pl and others return blank pages, error messages or place-holders... I guess we'll know more on Tuesday. Google is keeping their lips sealed and handed out the usual "we do not comment on market rumor or speculation" to AFP (this comment is handed out whether or not the rumor is true - the last time I received it was when I questioned Google on their alleged Feedburner acquisition, which days later turned out to be true)," Philipp Lenssen added.