Approximately 60% of Arabic-speaking Internet users dislike using an Arabic keyboard, according to Yamli, a Massachusetts-based startup that launched last year. CEO Habib Haddad explains that many users have to use a Latin keyboard for their jobs or school, which makes the keyboards impractical (and many think they’re just hard to type with). When it comes time to type in Arabic, many Internet users have adopted a phonetic web language that spells out Arabic words with these Latin letters. The result, Haddad says, is messy – especially when it comes to making sounds that don’t exist in English.
Yamli has built a system that solves this problem. Users enter words phonetically into a special text box that displays a list of matching words that are written in Arabic. This allows them to keep using their Latin keyboard, without having the resulting text look like gibberish. Because there are around 22 dialects in the Arab world, Yamli has to deal with multiple different phonetic spellings, which Haddad says it does with around 95% accuracy.
The company launched an Arabic frontend to Google in November 2007, and released an API in March 2008. The system was recently integrated into popular Arabic portal Maktoob (which Haddad likens to an Arab Yahoo). In the future, Haddad says that the technology will be applied to other platforms, like mobile phones. And it only has two employees, both co-founders.
The company seems like a likely acquisition target for Google or any other company looking to expand to Arabic-speaking nations, where Haddad says development has been relatively slow.
Guys, I haven’t used Onkosh before, but I don’t see the warrant for arguments and timelines, let’s hope and assume that both are respecting each others IP and then both should strive in the spirit of constructive business competition. This is by no means a charter handed down to anyone to “revolutionize” the Arabic web. The winner is the one who will win the hearts of it’s users and attract the largest traffic, I guess that’s how web 2.0 innovation is measured aka “advertising power”…
Yamli is the Coolest Arabic website , i luv the idea and it just simply works. Maybe yamli is not the first to provide such a feature, But for sure they are providing the best implementation out there. it’s not about doing something, it’s about doing it right. I’ve tried Onkosh , its still immature and needs lots of ironing. Until then, yamli is the best in the market and people will use it and keep using until something better comes up.
Great job guys and keep up the good work.
I totally agree with Moski comment , the point is to do things right and to keep it easy and efficient as much as you can ..
good job yamli guys
With all this thing going on i wanted to try and compare Yamli an Onkosh.I put this sentence on both search engines: almou3allima wal oustaz. I guess all arabic speakers would know what is the translation in arabic.
Results:
Onkosh: لموعالليم وال وستاظ
Yamli: المعلمة والأستاذ
I guess i know which one i’d want to use.
what is the wrong in that Query under Onkosh
“almo3lemh wal ostaz”
it will give you the result you need.
I liked yamli because it effectively gave me access to the arabic websites. I was never able to search for them or type into them before.
It’s good to see that it’s getting more and more coverage and going through more and more improvements as time goes by.
Keep up the good work guys, you have a good, successful, service.
Habib, I’m waiting for the long overdue integration with Microsoft Live (http://www.live.com)
Mmmm I see the whole gang in here
Yamli sure deserves the mention, and we saw it coming when we chose Yamli as one of the “five game changing Arabic start ups” http://www.twff...rabic-startups/
Congratulations to Yamli!
And please can we have a peaceful moment to celebrate the mention of an Arabic start up on Techcrunch, without conspiracy theories.
Competition is good for the Arabic internet idustry, if you think Yamli is a rip off do something better
Way to go Yamli! I’m really impressed how simple, intuitive and accurate it is. I never imagined that any automated tool can do this good of a job in such a complex translation. Very useful. I’ll definitely be using it whenever I need to type anything in Arabic. And the search wow!! I was able to find many songs, TV series (many from my childhood), poetry and tons of other content that I never thought were posted on the Arabic web.
Mabrouk Habib and the Yamli team on your great product !
I’ve tested and used it in some of our online properties and it is truly a great tool! It really helped us increase the proportion of Arabic comments and content vs. English or latin spelled Arabic.
I’m looking forward to integrating it into all of our services and use it to finally address specific Arab web problems and limitations.
Habib, I know this is only the beginning of a great series of innovative products and we Lebanese are proud to have you show the world we can also play a big role in technological innovation!
Techcrunch, prepare yourself for many other great products from this part of the world! You’ll be amazed …
Well as the idea looks cool , i wonder is there a similar Chinese , Japanese… i never looked .. but maybe there is..
Anyway Techcrunch blogged about Yamli because its a USA based company.. who knew how to reach Techcrunch.. so if Yamli said they were the first.. well why not believe them, Unkosh is an Egyptian based company who focuses their marketing focus on locals …
Anyway good luck for both.. but there is no need to say things like Yamli stolen Unkosh idea.. Google didn’t stole Hotmail idea when they put out Gmail,.. did they?
I’ve started using Onkosh earlier previous year they were the first of thier kind (actualy i got surprised then to see someone implementing this). it’s very useful and always works. Onkos is a search engin. yamli is a google wrapper. onkosh also has many other options like the sudoku in ramadan. thankwya amma results. onkosh is a place to visit from now and even yamli something you try once
There is no doubt that Yamli is the most creative Arabic-related applications I ever seen, and I’m really proud of the guys whom behind this state of the art tool..
Great opportunities will be out of this useful tool.
Good luck guys!
When you think of the technology behind it, the only thing you can say: brilliant!
The integration with Yamli was straight forward and took just a couple of minutes and could handle millions of hits per day….
Great Job guys
Well… to be honest I haven’t heard about Yamli before. I’ve been using Onkosh for quiet some time and I think it’s very reliable. Now that I tried Yamli, I noticed a very interesting thing, they are relying on Google as their search engine! As for Onkosh, it’a a complete search engine, which gives Onkosh way more credit!
Great job Yamli! We need more of such innovations in the Middle East. Since I started using yamli.com I have been able to be connected a lot more to the Arab world and its culture and news…Keep up the great work!
this is such a useful tool. i gave up on writing arabic because i couldnt find an arabic keyboard, or an OS with arabic support. Ever since i found out about yamli, i’ve been using it for everything, i think i’m gonna try using the api and integrating it with my website.
seriously GREAT JOB!
Everywhere I go in the middle east I come across people talking about this and now it’s techcrunched! Great to see such a lovely application…. it really saved me the hassle of learning how to type in Arabic….
Yamli is copying Bel-3araby idea, and making a big fuss around it since November 2007 claiming they are patent-pending. However Onkosh has been hosted since Jan 2007, long before Yamli. We know the company that owns Onkosh and they r professionals.
Honesty is a key factor of success and law is gonna prove that Onkosh was born long before Yamli.
Look up transliteration in Wikipedia. Its not Yamli nor Onkosh that invented it, it’s a known concept and no one can patent that !
It’s obvious that both companies have totally different approaches in solving it and this is what probably is patent pending, so the real question is, which one is going to get to hearts and minds of users… Now, I suggest letting the user decide instead of cluttering this post with a negative vibe, at the end of the day, the user prevails !
Ditto … Also I add to that I was using this tool looong before both Onkosh and Yamli (http://www4.ncs.../~yahussai/A_E/). This tool existed since late 04 but I then became an avid fan of Yamli for the many reasons that others have posted here.
So the claims about inventing the idea is totally ridiculous and does not hold ! So I join my voice with other fellows here and ask you to stop cluttering this post and let us enjoy this moment for our brothers at Yamli.
To be fair I have heard about Onkosh (Bel3araby) before Yamli but to be honest Yamli is light years ahead of it and I am going to stick with it.
Hi Karim,
idea of transliteration is not new as you said, and what you are refering to is a one-to-one tool — which is not powerful as either Onkosh or Yamli. By the way, Yamli just lists permutations and the user selects — Onkosh is more intelligent to suggest the most probable one? (if they jusy show more suggestions, they would probably beat Yamli — that honestly, i see it as someone who just ripped off a good idea of someone else!!)
cheers to everyone
Hey Mas3ood,
Cool … Not sure about the need for showing the permutations … I rarely look at them when using Yamli. Writing a word and pressing space bar generally does it for me …
Cheers to everyone indeed …
I believe Onkosh is older and pretty much matured than Yamli, its a nice try but dont claim you began this because we use the Onkosh feature before Yamli every exist.
Just focus on developing your search engine and don’t try to prove that you are pioneers in this feature, just try to make other features and leave this one for Onkosh because they deserve it.
Relax man. It’s not the issue of who was first or who wasn’t. It’s an issue of who is better. I tried both with many phrases, and Yamli is far superior.
I’m really proud of Yamli! It’s simply an innovative and useful Arab service.
Yamli is definitely a great service. What’s up with all the bitter Unkosh people ? That site SUCKS totally. Instead of coming on here saying they build the pyramids 3000 years ago and everybody copied them, how about making a service that ACTUALLY WORKS.
I am a Yamli fan as well but that was totally inappropriate … We should be happy to any contribution to the Arabic web especially from local players and entrepreneurs such as Yamli, Onkosh, Maktoob and others …
Go Yamli, go good Arabic technology
Really useful tool, great job !
Amazing how it can read your mind, plus it seem to have learning capabilities!!
very nice work guyz