Story by
Fawzi Rahal
Based in Dubai, Fawzi Rahal is the Editor of The Next Web Middle East and Regional Communications Director at G2. Follow him via Twitter. Yo Based in Dubai, Fawzi Rahal is the Editor of The Next Web Middle East and Regional Communications Director at G2. Follow him via Twitter. You can reach Fawzi at [email protected].
Maktoob has quickly caught up with Google’s new Arabic search enhancements by launching a Yahoo! powered search in Arabic.
It’s not quite clear what algorithm is being used in the background or if this is a Yahoo! specific solution and not related to Bing. In all cases, this is certainly the first tangible change for Maktoob users since the Yahoo acquisition late last year.
The search engine is currently in its first phase and the Yahoo/Maktoob team seems to be closely monitoring the engine as they’re encouraging people to use it and are promising better results soon.
Yahoo’s PR firm confirms that
This is the first step in Maktoob from Yahoo!’s commitment to facilitate the growth of online Arabic content and accommodate the increasing number of internet users searching for information in the language.
While the search results are responsive and encouraging, it’s interesting to watch Google and Yahoo! battle on an Arabic search ground. We say the more, the merrier!
The main search engine is at maktoob.search.yahoo.com. Give it a try. We’d love to know what you think.