Have you ever found yourself trying to search the Arabic web without an Arabic keyboard? It’s pretty much impossible. Not all laptops or computers necessarily come with Arabic support, and not all of us can necessarily type very well in Arabic. Enter Yamli – the brainchild of Lebanese entrepreneurs Habib Haddad and Imad Jureidini.

Using Yamli couldn’t be easier. Type the Arabic word as it is phonetically pronounced using English letters, and Yamli automatically transliterates the word for you. We’ve all become pretty adept at using the English alphabet online to communicate in Arabic – Yamli takes that skill one step further. The site is set up to search all the usual google staples – the web, google news, images, videos and blogs, as well as Wikipedia.  

Other than searching the web in Arabic, Yamli also provides an inbuilt editor, allows you to send emails in Arabic directly from their website, and for all you avid Facebook users, you’ll be happy to know that Yamli has its very own Facebook application.

On the more techie side, Yamli has released an API. In plain English, this means that other websites can integrate Yamli directly within their own website. It’s just a matter of time before this useful tool starts up popping up all across the Arabic web.