New UAE sites

The days of dusty libraries and dingy bookstores are gone with the Internet today slicing off chunks of time one spent years ago to find reference material. Today it's sit and surf for hours and any imaginable topic/information is available at your finger tips, literally. The growth of the Net has been dynamic with the future looking more challenging as new companies get swept, at every second, into joining the dot.com rollercoaster. The UAE, too, has seen rapid development in this sphere with more and more companies being launched to feed a hungry market that demands faster services and greater access to varied information. A look at four new recently-launched websites (in alphabetical order) in the region offering the discerning customer greater value at every click.

www.ajeeb.com

On typing this URL, go to the top right corner for English ajeeb. Colourful and comprehensive, this bilingual (Arabic and English) portal hopes to become the gateway to the Web for users and shoppers in the Arab world. Powered by Sakhr propietary Machine Translation engine, its strength lies in allowing the user to translate any English language text or Web page into Arabic quickly and to a level of acceptable accuracy. (The company hopes to provide the first translation service from Arabic to English by 2001 and from French to Arabic by 2002.) With this facility, Arabic users can now access English contents they were unable to before. Besides offering comprehensive Arabic cultural and business content, ajeeb.com also offers various free services that include a directory featuring around 10,000 regional websites; free hosting of Web pages, free e-mail, TV guide, a community channel, Arabic lexicons, a dictionary of Arabic literary terms, an encyclopaedia of Arabic cinema and more. It also hosts a multilingual dictionary (sometimes it throws up text coding too... needs more work?) that provides the equivalent term in five languages – Arabic, English, French, German and Turkish.

www.astylestatement.com

This newly-launched Web store is the region's first 'click 'n' brick' style salon that facilitates online shopping backed up by offline store facilities*. A dark entrance (homepage with black background gives it a classic and different look even if the writing seems a bit tiny, at times, to read) leads you to a treat of culture and style associated with India. It aims to cover the academics as well as the aesthetics of style. The company has roped in leading designers and design houses of India (Shahab and Kavita Durazi, Pallavi Jaikishan, Manish Arora, Ensemble and Kotwara to name a few) whose work can be viewed on the Net while *Aesthetics, a land outlet in Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road, offers online shoppers the facility for fittings and alterations.
Other information on the site includes Chronicles of couture (an understanding of Indian stylists from 5000BC to 2000AD); Cutting Edge (contemporary couture and couturiers' creative process); Designer Domain (designers making waves, Indian style gurus, their portfolios and addresses); and more. With Comtrust and the National Bank of Dubai as partners, this site hopes to ensure e-shoppers a flexible, secure and sound payment process. An ambitious beginning with parts still under construction (Bejewelled will highlight the evolution and shape contemporary Indian jewels have taken and more), the site is certain to capture a niche audience that it hopes to target.

www.ikaar.com

This is the first official real estate portal of the UAE, developed by Interactive Ventures in association with Dubai Development Board. Sponsored by the government of Dubai, ikaar.com offers information in a no-nonsense, simple and clear-cut style. The homepage has Residential Properties, Commercial Properties, Sharing Accommodation, Domestic help and more. A click on the Decorating section lists major chains like Anchor Decor, Home Centre, Impression Decor and more. Sadly one discovers that only their telephone and fax numbers are listed, there's no virtual trip here. Maybe in time there will be hyperlinks that offer detailed information under each topic.

www.mazadmaktoob.com

This straightforward site has recently launched the first online Arabic/English auction service with the objective of serving Arab Internet users. The site also offers free e-mail services, business directory, Arabic music, chat, e-cards etc. Besides, potential buyers at this auction site can place their bids within a timeframe and the item will go to the highest bidder, unless the final price is below the seller-specified minimum value. Users can also browse through products by country listing, local currency information and real-time currency conversion. Auctions for electronics and watches (Rolex and Christian Dior) showed up interesting prices.