Araby.com (www.araby.com), the world’s first search engine that offers advanced Arabic-language capabilities to users worldwide has just completed an exciting year since its ‘Beta’ launch.
The past year has witnessed Araby.com gain soaring popularity among consumers and establish itself as the premier Arabic-language search destination for users across the world. Over the past year, the website has been experiencing an exponential increase in traffic, especially in the past six months, during which traffic increased by a whopping 120 percent.
Ranking as one of the most momentous accomplishments of the year, Araby.com walked away with two prestigious awards; ‘The Best Arabic Website’ and the silver award in the ‘Directories and Info Services’ category at the Pan Arab Web Awards held in Dubai in April this year. Close on the heels of the initial improvements and enhancement of features, the search engine was officially launched with the removal of the ‘Beta’ from its logo in May 2007.
“We are immensely pleased with the progress of Araby.com in the past year”, said Maktoob Group CEO, Samih Toukan. “Thanks to feedback from our loyal users, Araby.com undertook significant improvements to existing features and introduced attractive new features such as Araby Dictionary and Araby Music – the region’s premier music search resource.”
“We have many more exciting plans for the coming months that will definitely result in making the Araby.com experience even more enjoyable and enriching”, he added.
“We believe that the constant improvements we’ve introduced to Araby.com have found favour with our users, resulting in a fantastic 120 percent growth in traffic over the last six months”, explained Isam Bayazidi, General Manager, Araby.com.
Recent improvements have been made to the interface of Araby.com to make it more appealing. Araby Music, which was launched in July has also undergone various changes. Visitors to the site are provided with a number of photographs of bestselling artists. Thus the search for songs by favourite artists is now just a click away. Search results will provide songs as well as links to the latest trivia about the artists.
During the holy month of Ramadan, searches on Araby.com mainly centered on Islamic backgrounds and images, quotations from the holy Quran, timing of prayers and fasting, healthy recipes and other topics related to Islam.
User interest in ongoing Arabic TV series’ was also displayed by the number of search queries received for the immensely popular show, Bab Al Hara. Other programs such as Nimer Ben Edwan, Malik Farouk and Sultan Al Gharam also received myriad search queries. Nancy Ajram proved to be the most-searched for singer during the period, with searches being conducted for her songs and photographs.
About Araby.com
Araby.com (www.araby.com), the first Arabic search engine that offers advanced Arabic-language capabilities to users worldwide, is a tool that searches the web through specific verticals such as news, Islam, forums, blogs and images.
It was launched by the Maktoob Group in September 2006.
About Maktoob Group:
Maktoob Group comprises a network of leading online media companies and websites. In addition to the Arab world’s leading portal, www.maktoob.com, the Maktoob Group network includes Souq.com (www.souq.com) auctions and marketplace, Araby.com (www.Araby.com) the first Arabic search engine, and cashU (www.cashu.com) the electronic payment solution, in addition to several other leading sites and services in the region. In 2005, Abraaj Capital, a leading regional private equity firm, acquired a stake in Maktoob.
