New search engine could boost Arab Internet use

"Sawafi" could also set a tough challenge for international search giants such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

The story "New search engine could boost Arab Internet use" published April 25, 2006 at 10:29 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[KrispyK]

Nothing new... Once there was Planetarabia.com and Arabia.com

Don't think this newest initiative to start a search engine for the Arab World will make a difference. Back in 2000 there was Planetarabia.com and Arabia.com and they both died out. The master plan for all these companies so far has been to get a visitor base and use that to sell themselves to one of the major search engines. The Arab world is not China and this new search engine won't make a difference as most web users in the arab world prefer using the english web.

[TV James]

Chicken or Egg

Do you create a search engine to encourage people to create content, or do you create a search engine in order to sift through all the existing content?

The article finally got to the point in the end... someone believes there's money to be made in online advertising. And what easier way to produce content you can slap advertising on than to display other people's content?

[lingsun]

Built-in censorship too?

Is there built-in censorship too? I'm sure educated people in the middle east know English too. More online newspapers are in English than any other language. I'm sure the intent is to provide a "safe" place for those who write in Arabic to search for whatever things their governments decide is OK for them to have.