Yamli, the Arabic transliteration search engine that allows users to easily search for Arabic phrases using their Latin keyboards, has launched a revamped version of its site that introduces a number of enhancements, including a way to automatically search for phonetically similar words that are spelled differently – a significant feature that could further bolster Yamli’s position in this still-fledgling space.
Because there is no ‘correct’ way to convert Arabic to Latin text, most words have multiple possible spellings (a fact readily visible on most major news networks). In the past Yamli has tried to automatically pick the best possible spelling, but these searches often missed out on possible relevant matches that used alternate spellings.
Yamli co-founder Habib Haddad says that search engines like Google can already correct for this for popular queries (especially names) using databases of alternative spellings, but that these are generally determined by human linguists and don’t work on less common or more generic words. Haddad says that using the millions of search queries that have been conducted on Yamli since its launch, the site can automatically determine synonymous words without any human intervention.
The new version of Yamli also introduces image search powered through Microsoft’s Live Search API, video search from YouTube, and Wikipedia search (the main text search is still powered by Google). Yamli has also added a two-column view that presents English and Arabic matches simultaneously (the two languages are separated because they are read in opposite directions).
There are a few other players in this space, including Onkosh and Google’s own competing service.
so this two person startup is the one that is kicking goggle azz
Phonetic algorithms like Soundex are nothing new, and I would hardly consider a site with 3k monthly uniques to be “kicking google azz” (for comparison, the Russian search engine rambler.ru has around 300k, and Google has around 130 million).
I wouldn’t base myself on compete to get uniques. Compete gets you only US visitors, while Yamli targets the Arab world. Completely different locations
Pretty sweet eh …. Proud to see small startups like Yamli outperform giants … The Yamli brand is also becoming stronger by the day in the Arabic web …
Title is misleading, the underlying search engine is Google. Besides have a nice user interface, Yamli’s innovation is in transliteration… which is the best I have seen to far – it beats the professional Arabic transliteration softwares I once used.
this is a smart move by Yamli, good for Arab users, thank you TC for covering Arab startups
seems like TC blocked me from trackback, i have pinged this post about 2 hours ago and it did not show! Michle Arrington has also deleted me from Facebook, why this lame moves TC?
Could it have anything with you literally taking their trademark title and copying it onto your blog, that also covers startups?
ArabCrunch? How did you come up with that name
?
What’s the deal with copycats?
A popular prefix seems to be ‘i’.
A popular suffix, in this case, seems to be ‘Crunch’.
Where’s the innovation?
One of the reasons i started ArabCrunch is because A-list blogs like TC do not cover Arab startups until recently, Yamli is the only Arab startup covered here.
I have not violated any trademarks and actually i told Michael Arrington in chat i am gona launch ArabCrunch and he told me to send him the news about it when launched. so it seems he was happy with that, now why he deleted me on FaceBook?
On the other hand Crunch name is a TechCrunch invention it is an English word that has many meanings for example:”
To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to perform. The pain may be due to the triviality’s being embedded in a loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. “Fortran programs do mostly number crunching.”
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
more here http://dictiona...m/browse/crunch
There are also many Crunchies take ChurchCrunch.com and IslamCrunch.com for example.
Very well done. There is no need to re-invent the wheel … a lot of companies are trying to create an Arabic search engine … yamli used the best search engine available and added the Arabic support … luv it guys, keep up the good work
Good job Yamli folks,,, this is truly a Breakthrough
U have truly brought the net usage of the arabic word rto a new level!!
i found this new feature to be really innovative. it gives the user a lot of options with the results, within the same page people can view the videos and other stuff in a fast manner.
keep it up guyz
Excellent idea,
Simple and effective, now we dont have to take hours typing in an arabic sentence, more website should integrate Yamli API !
Excellent new feature for all arab users. Keep up these innovations. Yamli is my homepage now!
yamli has become an indispensable tool for my work especially for research in the MENA region. ..thank you
easily the best thing arab web has come up with.
also ikbis.com the arab youtube … but its sucks
Yamli is my starting point for web searches in the Middle East. It has great content and almost always gets me what I need. I used to use Google earlier but this is way better with lots of content relevant to the region!
Excellent tool for search and editing!!! Should be on every website!
Wonderful upgrade… Data mining for arab and MENA region countries is no longer a hassle
Keep it up Yamli
i just loved it its so easy and great i really like it .. y36eeko el 3afyeh Guys !! u’ve done a great work .. keep up the great work !
and thnks for Yamli… its my homepage now and its really helpfull ! god bless you all .. !
Wow, that’s really cool. I used to have to type many different searches to get the videos I want. I just tried “bab al hara” on Yamli videos. I got a lot better results that when I use Youtube. I don’t need to put 7ara, etc… anymore.
I love it!!!!
yamli is gr8. i tried so many solutions for typing in arabic but the main difference in yamli is its getting better by the hour its strangely getting smarter. i use it now so naturally that i veeery rarely have to correct any typing mistakes. + i dont need to copy/paste everytime to search the web its integration with google and youtube is so cleverly done…
Once again Yamli does it !!!!
I have been using Yamli since 2007, and I am impressed.
The latest move was the icing that we all were waiting for, and it sure makes that yummmy cake even sweeter !
A friendly search engine, and language tool… simple, innovative and SPAM FREE…. and also available as a full value added solution…
When my Arabic Word goes crazy on me, Yamli’s Editor comes to the rescue and solve many issues…
I love the Video Search on the new Yamli. The format is amazing and also right to the point… I dont think I will be searching for Video using the youtube site anymore, this is a goldmine to me !
The arabic search…. JUST AMAZING…..
To those that made comments saying the title is misleading… Yamli enhance the search on Google, I have seen both results… and seen the difference… The Yamli guys DESERVE a lot of credit for the amazing work they did this time!
Yamli beats any specialized Arabic search engine and makes good use of Google for Arabic users.
I recommended Yamli to many people that cant write arabic but can speak it, and now they are encouraged to learn more and use arabic more.
Yamli truly is a revolution in the Arabic Web world!
Congratulations Yamli for the new project…. and I hope you continue into more success….
& BIGGGGG thank you for keeping your service, free and SPAM FREE…
The only way to take a good idea to reality is execution.
And you did it perfectly!!!
Congrats and keep amazing us ( in arabic please!)
Yamli is a great tool for the arabic web. I love the improvements.
definitely Arab web start-ups such Yamli is what makes web more interesting for Arab users
Great job guys, i really like it, actually i am using yamli when i want to write an arabic letter i use yamli its fast and easy to use
good luck
If I had 10 hands, I’d give you 10 thumbs up !!
Great improvements !!
You’re sitting on a gold mine there … Best of luck !!
Congrats to the Yamli team! The new site looks awesome… Keep it up!
I think one of the points people should realize around this product is that the Yamli guys are going to be the ones who keep coming up with the good ideas in this space, and executing on them. They’ve clearly got talent, and make really usable products.
Great Job… Yamli is starting to cover the entire spectrum of services needed by the arab websurfers
This is getting better and better! I can’t believe I am changing my Google homepage after all these years!
Congrats, can’t wait for more.
The new search capabilities are amazing. I love how the matching happens so I don’t have to do 5 or 10 searches with different spellings Yamli does it for me and I’m really happy
Keep it up Yamli! The new product RULES!
Exactly!!! How many combinations of Fairouz’s name have you tried over the years? (Fairouz, Fairuz, Fairooz, Feyrouz, Feiruz, Feirooz, Feirouz, Feyrouz, Feyruz, Feyrooz at least). Thank you Yamli! A whole new set of online media is unlocked.
How come I didn’t think of this before ? Or even worse, how come Google didn’t think of this before ? Fantastic work !
It’s great to see you guys are enriching Arabic content on the internet… Yamli makes it easier for people to contribute without any hassles!
Yamli is an example of the kind of company we would like to work with, towards targeting the Middle East region and beyond.
One week after and i am still excited about it
Nice work guys, keep it up!
Just a question if anybody can answer, we is the image search powered by Microsoft Live? Why don’t I have the choice of searching with Google Images?
very very nice idea & job but the domain is sucks find another one