Anyways, I ran a few tests on several search engines, Araby, Ayna, Bing, Google, Yahoo/Maktoob. I came to a small conclusion;

Araby: it should be an all exclusive entertainment search engine if it wants to survive. Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for Araby. And it’s time to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Enlarge your video/image/audio index or Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Some usability issues.

Ayna: it should be a an all exclusive local search engine if it wants to survive.Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for it. And it needs to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Better maps are needed ASAP or else Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Major usability issues.

Bing: retire please (or start building proper options for the search engine, results wise it is O K)

Google: Usability, results, options, diversity, overall, still the king with no real threat at all (yet?). Downside, they have to plug the map/local search, saw a few shy attempts, they have to unleash all the data they are getting for FREE from US the USERS!

Yahoo/Maktoob: Considering it’s relatively new in the Arabic market, it is O K, results are O K, but lacks basic functionality just like Bing. Shape up fast or die. (Even though it’s the default search engine on Maktoob, it won’t help much, we saw the same failed attempt by Araby…)

Now the comparison chart, it’s not that extensive, but it gives you a pretty good idea of the major differences between the search engines. All answers marked NO didn’t work at the time of the writing of this post (Feb 8th, 2010) if it is working please take a screen-shot and get in contact so I can update.

The search term means “The Elements of Social Architecture” I wanted to try something “different” they all got the good results except Ayna, the first two results were totally irrelevant.

. Araby Ayna Bing Google Yahoo/Maktoob . Search Term: عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية 3,239 Results 138 Results 4,050 Results 223,000 Results 26,700 Results . Results (1st) A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية عمارة – ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية . Speed in seconds N/A 0.9154 N/A 0.9 0.26 . Cached No No Yes Yes No . Boolean searching Yes No Yes Yes Yes . Related Search Yes No No Yes No . Different Views No No No Yes (Related searches Wonder wheel Timeline) No . Search in results No No No Yes No . Limit by date No (advanced is down) Yes (limited though) No Yes (extensive) Yes (limited though) . Collections to search Web Audio Dictionary Songs Islam Forums Celebrities Web Images Video News Dictionary Blog Local Religion Web Web Images Videos News Blogs Updates Books Forums Social Web . Translate pages/sites No No No Yes No . Search in Results No No No Yes No . Advanced Results Sorting/Clustering No No No Yes No

Anyways I decided to go “smart” a bit and search for:

• “Weather Cairo/ احوال الطقس في القاهرة”. All engines failed (note that in English it works perfectly on Google and Bing)
• “Cafe in Dubai/مقهى في دبي “. All engines failed (again in English it shows Google maps with Local Business Results, I was expecting Ayna to show some results since they have maps in Arabic and boast about it)

The only “unusable” features that Araby and Ayna have is the Arabic keyboard (note the “unusable”) Google added transliteration service in their lab but it’s not as good as Yamli’s (it ROCKS!) and not available on the search engine directly…yet.

Anyways here are few screen-shots

I am really bad in typing Arabic, like really bad. Fortunately both search engines, Araby and Ayna, provide a nice feature, the virtual keyboard. How thoughtful for us who suck at typing in Arabic. Really thoughtful and extremely nice feature, till you use it!

I mean come on guys! using a mouse to TYPE?  I cannot find the letters on a regular keyboard, and it won’t help to find them on small virtual keyboard.

People (or they) might say that most their users don’t type using that keyboard, or 99.9% of the Arabic internet users actually type in Arabic, well here’s a quick answer, DO NOT PUT IT THERE IF IT IS NOT NEEDED, you either put something functional and friendly, or don’t put it there at all!

A handful around the middle east are smart enough to come up with something actually usable, yes, Yamli, it is the sweetest thing one can use for transliteration, extremely useful, extremely easy (with the occasional stuborness for certain words) but all in all it’s sweet and way faster than click-typing on a virtual keyboard (Flash info, Arabic keyboard layout on a Mac are different from PCs…)

We were having this discussion today at work and I was asked why don’t they (the search engines) use Yamli’s api (Ayna and Araby) to enhance the experience. The reason is simple folks, Yamli saves all queries (at least how many keywords) done through their site or API, so Mr Yamli will have access to some stats that both engines are secretive about (till they hit high numbers then they’ll start bragging about it)

When Yamli came out, Araby attacked by having a poll if transliteration is a nice feature or not on their blog, and the usual answers, “it’s a conspiracy against Arabs…”  on the other hand Ayna.com didn’t react in any way.

The search results…

I will keep it short. WTF!!

Dear Arabic search engines, some of you are “eyeing” Google, others are trying to fill the gaps that Google is missing. Please take a seat all of you and read this carefully; if you want to beat Google, you can’t and won’t do that by providing some “WTF” queries, if I search in Arabic for “Al Sharja’s Educational Forum” and I get this

or this

I don’t see them even getting near Google. In a recent press release (why not a friendly blog instead of a dry 1990s pr?) Ayna said that they are ditching FAST ESP (well, microsoft acquired it and it all went sour apparently…hmmm) so let’s hope the new engine is better…I promise if I see any good changes I will blog about it…

Aaaanyways, after searching, I found what I wanted on both sites (doesn’t take much to find it, but Google just threw it in my face, here ya go schmuck!) I saw a nifty little feature on Ayna, save listing, I clicked it, and waited, and waited and it still says “saving…” till now.

Araby on the other hand doesn’t offer such a feature (even a non working one), it would be nice if I could save an interesting link without having to actually visit the site and bookmark it.

What Araby offers is suggestions, a feature missing on Ayna’s…

Another thing that really struck me is the end of the page on Ayna, I wanted to try another query and KABOOM! no search bar at the bottom, had to scroll back up to do another search…*cough*

On a last note – for the time being – speed wise, we got snails, 1.7003 seconds for Ayna, 1.437 seconds for Araby, and the titan 0.26 seconds for Google…

If I want to really scrutinize the search engines we have, it will take volumes to review, BUT we all have to admit that they are trying to do something but unfortunately not trying hard enough.

Next post will be about Yamli, dissecting it (hopefully) and going through what it offers and what is missing, I am giving the other search engines a break for a few days, consider it as an “Entr’acte”.

Links

• Araby
• Ayna
• Yamli
• Araby’s post on transliteration
• Ayna ditching FAST ESP

I am gonna slice n’ dice (kind of) Ayna and Araby

Landing page:

Ayna

First impression, it doesn’t look like a traditional search engine, it’s more like an old Yahoo. What struck me was the logo, I clicked it, it reloaded the page, no information no nothing about the little birdie up there (Francophonie games in Beirut), not even an alt text about the logo.

We have two menus, left and right, another down point,  the right menu only repeats a few links of the left, what’s the point? another thing is the TINY left menu icons…

Colors wise, out of 247 elements there are 95 failures (contrast, brightness, and color difference).

I can’t blame them, accessibility and usability are not taken seriously in the middle east but some can always pioneer and educate the others…

that’s a quick review of Ayna’s landing page, off to Araby’s

Araby

Unlike Ayna, Araby’s main focus is on the search, you cannot miss it and it draws the attention the second the page loads. Both website suffer from minuscule fonts and don’t offer a suitable alternative (sIFR anyone?) the 800×600 days are over, no seriously, it’s OVER.

I can only think about ask.com every time I visit Araby (it’s just me most probably) but layout wise and sending the “Hey look at me I am a search engine” vibes works way better than Ayna’s and a bit less dry than Google’s.

Colors wise (accessibility/usability) out of 128 elements we’ve got 77 failures

Having the “most searched for” in that form on Araby’s page MIGHT (and I am just saying MIGHT) be indicating poor search usage, to be fair; middle eastern users need a bit of education when it comes to search engines, and alas, not even one single Arabic search engine offers trainings/tutorials/webinars.

That’s a VERY quick look at the landing pages, I am not providing solutions, we the users are not stupid and it’s not 1998 anymore, innovate and stop insulting our intelligence and “eyes”

Links:

• Ayna
• Araby
• Checky my colors

Second post will be about the “Experience”…till then, happy searching