Based in
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, Ajeeb.com is the
Middle Eastern equivalent of
Yahoo, a
web portal featuring a web site directory, free email, daily news, chat rooms, games, etc.
One of the more interesting features of Ajeeb.com is the
Arabic-
English translator. It is as clumsy and awkward as you might expect, and proper names have to be programmed in individually because Arabic has no capital letters ("
Taliban", for example, was being translated as its literal meaning, "two students"). However, even in its current form, its potential for cross-cultural information flow is impressive. English speakers are using it to read
Al-Jazeera and Arabic speakers are using it to read
CNN. Other sites English speakers are hitting include
Saudi Arabia's
Asharq Al-Awsat, the
UK's
Al Hayat, and
Egypt's
Al-Ahram.
Ajeeb.com is a division of
Sakhr Software and its chief executive is a citizen of
Kuwait,
Fahad Al Sharekh, who was recently interviewed in
Wired.
Sources: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,48260,00.html, www.ajeeb.com