ALKHOBAR, 20 November 2007 — How would you feel if you were an Arab trying to find information online about a major catastrophe in the Arab world, but there wasn’t an Arabic-enabled keyboard in sight? According to Habib Haddad, co-founder of Yamli.com, you’d be feeling extremely frustrated.
“During the unfortunate events that happened in Lebanon in July 2006, I heard about an incident occurring near my parent’s house,” Haddad recollected. “I quickly logged on to the Internet to try to read news about it. I went to the Arabic news sites, but I felt very frustrated trying to input Arabic words to be able to search. Being in the US at the time, I didn’t have access to an Arabic keyboard at that moment. So I started copying and pasting letters from a news site in order to form my search query. All the while, I was chatting with my Arab friends. I was chatting in Arabic, but I was actually using the English alphabet to create the Arabic words — a representation that many Arabs use extensively in chatting, messaging and e-mail. It hit me right then. I saw an opportunity to solve an everyday problem for millions of Arabic speakers around the globe.”
So with a friend, Imad Jureidini, Haddad created and has now brought into public beta Yamli.com, a web-based tool that empowers users to easily use and access the Arabic web. Yamli is the intellectual property of their company, Language Analytics LLC, an Internet startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which specializes in smart transliteration technologies for Arabic and other languages.
Haddad pointed out that although Internet usage is exploding across the Arab world, access to and the development of Arabic content has been difficult, in part due to the complexity of typing Arabic. Although Arabic keyboards are available, they aren’t common outside the Arab world. Additionally, even Arabic-speaking Internet users are often more accustomed to an English keyboard. In casual usage, such as instant messaging, users often resort to spelling Arabic words out phonetically using English characters, a process known as transliteration. Yamli allows users to convert these English characters into Arabic words.
“Like millions of Arab Internet users, I could easily express my Arabic words using English letters, but I had difficulty typing them in Arabic,” explained Haddad. “The need for a technology that efficiently converted those phonetic spellings into meaningful Arabic words seemed natural to me. It would have to be so seamless that users would be able to write Arabic text and forget they were using English characters.”
Yamli’s patent-pending solution converts the user’s input into Arabic as he or she types. To maximize usability, Yamli accepts a variety of phonetic spellings and generates a list of suggested matches. Over time, Yamli will recognize popular patterns of spelling and word selection, increasing its accuracy.
Yamli’s initial release encompasses two tools: Yamli Search and Yamli Editor. Yamli Search allows users to search the Net using Arabic keywords with Google. Users can search for general web content, videos, news, images and blogs. Yamli Editor allows users to write Arabic text that can then be copied into any electronic medium.
“The Arabic web will truly take off when people can do two things easily — find and write Arabic content,” said Language Analytics co-founder Imad Jureidini. “While there are many applications for our technology, we sought to address these two fundamental needs immediately.”
Jureidini and Haddad’s success is an example of how, equipped with the right knowledge and a great skill set, young Arabs can prosper. Jureidini is a 35-year-old, Lebanese-American who grew up in France and eventually earned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT. He holds the Technology Chair of the International Network of Lebanese Entrepreneurs and Technologists (INLET), an NGO based in Boston. INLET’s (www.inlet-lebanon.org) focus is on entrepreneurship for Arabs. Jureidini worked for several companies in the Boston area, but ultimately wanted to start his own business.
Haddad, 27, grew up in Lebanon. After taking his first degree at the American University of Beirut, he earned his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. His career began with a stint in a startup and then he moved to AMD as a Senior Software Engineer. Haddad describes himself as a software developer who’s passionate about entrepreneurship and philanthropy. He is the co-founder and Program Chair of INLET and the founder of ReliefLebanon.org a grassroot effort that was created to help the people of Lebanon affected by the violence there in July 2006. ReliefLebanon helped collect more than $2 million from individual donations and fund raising events.
Haddad and Jureidini got to know each other when they worked together for about a year at a company developing 3D software in the Boston area. “We were both itching to start our own business, and waiting for the right idea to come,” said Jureidini. “In the meantime, we both participated in INLET, to learn about the process of launching a startup, funding, hiring, growing, etc. and also attended the TechLeb Conference. INLET enabled us to build a network that was crucial in helping to launch Yamli — from marketing and legal advice, to business strategy.”
Jureidini and Haddad started working on the company in February 2007, on evenings and weekends. Once they came up with a solid prototype, Language Analytics LLC was officially formed in August 2007. The company is privately held and self-funded. Although Jureidini and Haddad are not actively seeking funding at the moment, they stated, “they are open to discussions in order to accelerate the availability of Yamli’s technology everywhere.”
That Language Analytics LLC has come into existence is a major achievement. Throughout the Arab world, young entrepreneurs face an uphill struggle in getting a company off the ground.
Commenting on that problem, Haddad said: “While the Middle East is a wonderful source of talent, in particular for software development, it lacks the infrastructure such as high-speed Internet access and the funding start-up companies need including a lack of venture capital and difficulties getting loans. Also, the steps to establish a company are not straightforward and might be lengthy.”
He discussed the cultural problems young Arab entrepreneurs encounter. “Being an entrepreneur is not always easy,” Haddad advised. “You need to give up your ‘safe’ job and embark on a riskier route. You sometimes need to survive without a salary for months. Frequent overnights and time away from your family are not rare. Also, the failure rate is high. In the entrepreneurship world, failure is just another experience that makes you stronger for the next venture — but the Arab world lacks a strong entrepreneurship culture — so failure is unacceptable. All of this makes it hard for young Arab entrepreneurs to branch out and start working on their own ideas.”
Organizations such as INLET provided Haddad and Jureidini with a support system that eventually enabled them to develop Yamli.com.
“INLET opened our eyes to the incredible number of dynamic-, entrepreneurial-minded Middle Eastern people,” said Jureidini. “There is so much potential in the Arab world, but there must be more NGOs that offer mentorship and guidance to budding entrepreneurs.”
What does the future hold for Haddad, Jureidini and Language Analytics?
“We are committed to solving the problem of easy typing in Arabic wherever it is needed,” said Haddad. “This includes web, desktop and mobile applications. We will be releasing several products in the coming year, which we will announce when they’re available. We are currently working on a tool that we think our target audience will love, so please stay tuned.”
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