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Yamli

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Yamli
Company typeStart-up
IndustryInternet, Search Engine
Founded2007
Headquarters
Cambridge Edit this on Wikidata
,
United States Edit this on Wikidata
Key people
Habib Haddad
Imad Jureidini
Websitehttp://www.yamli.com

Yamli.com (Arabic: يملي yamlī, "[he] dictates") is an Internet start-up focused on addressing the problems specific to the Arabic web. Yamli currently offers two main products: the smart Arabic keyboard, and Yamli Arabic Search. The smart Arabic keyboard allows users to type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard from within their web browser. This technology is based on a real-time transliteration engine which converts words typed with Latin characters to their closest Arabic equivalent. Yamli Arabic search is a search engine focused on providing more relevant search results for an Arabic query by expanding it to its most frequently used Latin representations.

Products

Smart Arabic keyboard

Yamli's Smart Arabic Keyboard was launched in November 2007.[1] It allows users to type Arabic by spelling their words phonetically using Latin characters. The real time transliteration engine is designed to be:

  • flexible to accept many ad hoc input spellings for the same output word.
  • accurate to allow the user to type quickly without the need for constant corrections.
  • adaptive to learn from the input patterns and dialects of the users[2]

It is also possible for other websites and blogs to use Yamli's typing technology through a free Javascript API. The Arabic Keyboard API allows a website publisher to easily convert text input fields to accept Arabic input in Latin form.

Arabic and Arabic dialects content on the web exists in two forms: in Arabic Script and in ad hoc Latin phonetic representations (Arabic Chat Alphabet). Finding relevant content for an Arabic query on a traditional search engine can be difficult because it requires trying many Latin variations of that query. Yamli Search seeks to address this problem by expanding an Arabic search query to its most frequently used Latin spellings. The search query is forwarded to a traditional search engine, returning a larger number of relevant results than the original query would have.[3]

The following are examples of Latin query expansions automatically performed by Yamli Search:

  • محمد بن راشد: Mohammed Bin Rashid, Mohamad Ben Rached, Mo7amed Bn Rachid, etc …
  • حبيبي يا نور العين: Habibi ya nor el ein, 7abibi ya noor el 3ayn, etc …

Yamli Search queries are forwarded to Google for web and news, Wikipedia for encyclopedic searches, Bing for image searches and YouTube for movie and video searches.

History

Yamli's typing technology originated during the July 2006 war in Lebanon, when co-founder Habib Haddad was looking for news about the war online.[4] Without access to an Arabic keyboard and not being used to one, Haddad had difficulties finding up-to-date information, which is generally first available in Arabic. After working on prototypes of an Arabic transliteration engine for several months, Haddad, along with co-founder Imad Jureidini, founded Language Analytics LLC in July 2007. In November 2007, Language Analytics launched Yamli.com, featuring the Smart Arabic Keyboard to allow users to type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard, as well as a basic search engine front end to Google. This first search engine did not include the expanded query capabilities of Yamli Arabic Search. The typing technology was made to third-party websites in March 2008 in the form of a free API. The search engine was updated to include the query expansion capabilities in December 2008.

Timeline

  • Language Analytics LLC founded in July 2007
  • Yamli.com launched on November 15, 2007[1]
  • Arabic keyboard API beta released in March 2008[5]
  • Arabic keyboard API officially launched on October 8, 2008.[6]
  • Yamli Arabic Search launched on December 15, 2008[7]

Awards

Yamli has won the "Best Web Technology Award" at the "Pan Arab Web Awards 2008",[8] and the audience choice award at the WebInnovatorsGroup 17.[9] Yamli founder Habib Haddad was featured on the World Economic Forum's 2009 Young Global Leader List.[10]

Competition

1. Yabhath

2. Onkosh Closed down in Aug. 2010

References

  1. ^ a b Online tool lets Arabic typists type in English
  2. ^ Interview on Startuparabia with Habib Haddad
  3. ^ CNN on "Window opens to Arabic Web"
  4. ^ Presentation by Habib Haddad at the American University of Beirut in August 2008
  5. ^ Startuparabia: Yamli Officially Releases Free API Allowing Easy Integration of Arabic Transliteration Into Any Website
  6. ^ Techcrunch: Yamli Makes It Easy To Use Arabic On The Web
  7. ^ Techcrunch: Yamli’s Powerful Arabic Search Engine Continues To Innovate
  8. ^ PAWA 2008 Winners
  9. ^ WebInno Blog.
  10. ^ Yamli.com Founder Habib Haddad on World Economic Forum’s 2009 Young Global Leader List, Business Wire. Retrieved on 3 09 2009.
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