Wikileaks on Jordan

arabcrunch.com, Wikileaks: Jordanian government officials envision Jordan as the “India of the Middle East”, 7 Sep 2011 "A US diplomatic cable sent from US embassy in Amman and published on Wikileaks this week discussed Jordan’s IT sector status and plans after Yahoo acquisition of Jordanian portal Maktoob."

As7ab to close

arabcrunch.com Yahoo! Maktoob to Shutdown its Arabic Social Network As7ab in September 2011, 26 Jul 2011

Ramadan survey

Al Bawaba, Third annual survey on Ramadan traditions and practices reveals interesting results, 10 Aug 2010: "For the third year in a row, Yahoo! Maktoob Research has undergone a recent region-wide survey on attitudes and perceptions of people during Ramadan. The survey questions tackle sensitive areas related to traditions and practices giving straight and direct information of how people perceive Ramadan and how this perception changes each year. Unlike last year the number of Muslim Arabs observing the Ramadan fast this year is down by 2% (98% in 2009). The survey also revealed that a vast majority of this year's respondents (87%) prefer to celebrate Iftar with their families at home."

Maktoob Ramadan site

ArabCrunch, Yahoo! Maktoob Launches a Tailored Website For the Holy Month of Ramadan, 8 Aug 2010 "The new site will introduce a number of features including downloads for Ramadan-specifc screen server and wallpapers, ramadan news feed via the web and desktop gadgets and a new Ramadan contest and a TV guide. Also Yahoo’s recently announced Video On Demand Channel (VOD) will be available for users to use for free on the TV guide. Yahoo said on a press release that VOD has Ramadan “related” videos and shows."

Yahoo and Maktoob

Middle East Online, Yahoo Maktoob Shuts Down 27 of its Website but Keeps its ‘Helwa’, 3 May 2010

"The first of Maktoob’s sites that should have been shut down first is ‘Helwa’. I have been monitoring the website for academic research for a long time, one thing I am sure of; there is hardly any education of women going on there, notes Iqbal Tamimi."

See Iqbal Tamimi's work with Journomania.

Google Arabia

Interesting article on the hotting up of the Arabic language search-engine (+) market. I particularly liked the 'doodle' used to accompany the article (above)

Gaith Saqer, Google to Push for a Larger Expansion in the Arab Region, 8 Mar 2010 "Until recently Google presence in the region was with a small office in Dubai, Cairo and Saudi Arabia, with a small team whose focus was in Google Ad words, marketing, PR and Arabizing some of its products, excluding the fully Arabic Google’s Ejabat. While all the development work for Google has been carried out from its center in Switzerland.

"However, we see now a major change in that direction as we see bigger regional push from Google, as its now seeking to employ more people in the region. This comes few months after Yahoo!’s acquisition of the largest Arab portal : Maktoob."

Botnet impact

itp.net, Facebook and Maktoob accounts compromised by botnet, 24 Feb 2010 "Egypt was found to be the country worst affected by Kneber with close to 7,000 infected systems, followed by Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States and Pakistan."

Yahoo Arabic search

Gaith Saqer, arabcrunch.com, Yahoo! Launches Arabic Search via Maktoob "Yahoo Arabic search is run on Yahoo!’s own search engine not Microsoft’s bing. Yahoo Arabic search competes not just with Google’s Arabic search but with Jabbar Group’s Araby search engine, which used to be part of Maktoob Group!"

As7ab

Ghaith, arabcrunch.com Yahoo!Maktoob’s Launches Workplace and University Friend Finder Alert for its Arabic Social Network “As7ab”, 4 Nov 09 "As7ab which means Friends in Arabic is one of first Arabic social networks owned now by Yahoo! Maktoob, the social network was launched around 2 years ago by Maktoob, since then it has been adding features gradually."

See As7ab for more

Yahoo! and Maktoob

Gareth Van Zyl, itp.net, Yahoo! goes East: Yahoo! intent on making in-roads in the East and Middle East, 6 Oct 09

"Apart from Maktoob, Yahoo! also seems to be trying to tackle the mobile space with news on ArabCrunch (a Middle East blog on technology) reporting that Yahoo! Maktoob have developed an app for the iPhone that acts as a translator from English into Arabic."

App

Gaith, arabcrunch.com, Yahoo! Maktoob Launches Its First iPhone App: An Arabic/English Free Dictionary, 29 September 2009

Yahoo! and Maktoob

huffingtonpost.com, Faisal Ghori, Building Hope: What Yahoo!'s Acquisition of Maktoob.com Means, 2 Sep 09 "Hope is often in short supply in the Middle East, but that may be quickly changing, at least for the region's entrepreneurs. On August 25, Yahoo!, the Internet giant, announced that it will acquire Maktoob.com, the Middle East's largest web portal and online community founded and operated in Jordan. As the very first acquisition of a Middle East-based technology company by an American technology giant, this is nothing short of a sea change for the region. Overnight it has bolstered the region with instant credibility and given its entrepreneurs reason to hope that they too can succeed in creating companies. The acquisition, in short, has fundamentally altered the technology landscape in the Middle East." Opinion piece.