ONLINE TOOL ALLOWS ARABIC SPEAKERS TO WRITE ARABIC USING ENGLISH ALPHABET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- November 15th, 2007 -- Language Analytics LLC, an internet startup, unveiled Yamli.com, a web-based tool that empowers users to easily use and access the Arabic web.

The Arab world has one of the highest internet usage growth rates. Yet, access to and development of Arabic content has been difficult, mainly because of the complexity of typing Arabic. Although Arabic keyboards are available, the vast majority of Arabic-speaking Internet users are accustomed to an English keyboard. 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.

Co-founder Habib Haddad explains: “I would often experience frustration trying to find Arabic news on the web. Like millions of users, I could easily express my Arabic words using English letters, but I had difficulty typing them in Arabic. 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. This is how Yamli was born.”

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.
Co-founder Imad Jureidini says: “The Arabic web will truly take off when people can do two things easily: find and write Arabic content. While there are many applications for our technology, we sought to address these two fundamental needs immediately.”

Yamli’s initial release encompasses two tools: Yamli Search and Yamli Editor. Yamli Search allows users to search the web 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.

Yamli can be found at http://www.yamli.com.

Habib Haddad
Language Analytics LLC
press@yamli.com
617-395-8513

About Language Analytics LLC

Language Analytics LLC, an internet startup based in Cambridge, MA, specializes in smart transliteration technologies for Arabic and other languages. For more information, visit our website, at http://www.yamli.com/about/.

This release was published on openPR.