The Maktoob Group took the opportunity of GITEX 2007, which took place in Riyadh from 15 – 19 April 2007, to showcase Araby, the world's first Arabic language search engine. To celebrate the occasion Maktoob arranged some special surprises for visitors to their stand, including a personal appearance by Saudi comedian Yousef al Jarrah.
Samih Toukhan, Managing Director of the Maktoob Group, emphasizing the importance of showcasing Araby at GITEX 2007, said, "Saudi Arabia has the highest number of internet users in the Middle East which makes it the first priority in our marketing strategy. Since GITEX is the most important information technology exhibition in the Middle East, the event provided us with an exceptional opportunity to introduce our services to the Saudi market, which is the biggest and most important in the region."
Toukan went on to say "With ever increasing use of the internet in the Arab world, there is huge demand for a search engine that differs from all other search engines by using the most advanced technology to understand the Arabic language and all its grammatical rules. This is exactly what Araby does when it searches all the Arabic web pages on the internet."
World wide, search engines cannot accurately decipher the Arabic language and other Arabic searches are restricted to a limited database of sites. What makes Araby so unique is that it uses a high technology search engine that operates by very advanced algorithms, giving it the ability to search tens of millions of Arabic documents on the internet and then give the closest result for the requested search topic in the Arabic language, even correcting grammatical errors and misspelled words..
To optimize user-friendliness, Araby has a number of different search categories such as news, politics, and sports, in which the information is sourced from the most reliable and trustworthy Arab news sources. In addition, there is the facility to start a search under 'Islam' which covers topics such as: the Holy Quran, Islamic seminars and Islamic research, a feature which will be of benefit to millions of Muslim users all over the world.
Araby has undergone a number of improvements since it was first launched, and work continues to update and upgrade the search engine's capabilities as new technologies become available.
The vision of the specialists working on the Araby search engine is to be the leader of the Arab internet world by providing the Arab community with a creative frame of connections and electronic trade solutions. It is the aim of the Maktoob Group to make Araby the first, best and only search engine for Arab internet users, just as Maktoob is the Arab world's first and best mail service.
About Maktoob:
Maktoob was founded in the year 2000 as the world’s first free Arabic/English Web-based Email service, offering users the ability to receive and compose Email in either language, regardless of the operating system. In few years, Maktoob has strategically grown to be an integrated group of companies and websites. The network of sites represents Maktoob.com the leading Arab portal with a leading market share of 4 million active users, and a range of companies and sites specialized in business and ecommerce in the region. Maktoob's main mission is to maintain and grow its position as the largest Arab community site by constantly offering its users a unique experience and by providing them with new services and products, please visit; www.maktoob.com
