New ‘halal’ search engine

[islamerica]

New ‘halal’ search engine

12 September 2009

JEDDAH – A new search engine, called ImHalal.com, filters out X-rated Web sites and other content that is “haraam” or forbidden by Islam.

http://www.imhalal.com/

The search technology developed by AZS Media Group, a Dutch Internet company, has a two-layer filter.

Sex sites are blocked outright while other topics that are less dicey, such as “drugs,” “beer” or “pork” are restricted but not as tightly.

When users do a search and get a haram rating of level one or two out of three, they are advised to choose another keyword to search, but they can still continue their search if they believe the results fetched will be clean, said Reza Sardeha, founder of the media group in a published interview.

Words like p***n and rape are considered to be at a rating of three, and are blocked, Sardeha told PC World. Terms like beer and pork, however, get a haram rating of one because users cannot consume them off the Internet.

The site has received more than 400,000 unique visitors since it was launched earlier this week, Sardeha said in the interview.

“We got the feeling that a lot of people in the Middle East, a lot of Muslims, really avoided the Internet and prevented their children from accessing it because they were afraid of what they might come across,” Sardeha said after ImHalal.com debuted this week.

Mainstream search engines have come in for criticism in many parts of the world for displaying content that is offensive to the local culture, and even against local laws.

ImHalal.com’s promoters are considering using advertising as a revenue stream for the site, Sardeha said.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009091249636​

Comments:

Such a safe engine should be used by non-Muslims as well to protect their children as previous email showed top three searches for 2009 by 9-12yr olds were on sex and p*o*r*n.

 

[islamerica]

New Arabic search engine may challenge Google, Yahoo

A Saudi-German venture hopes to become the Baidu.com of the Gulf and its expatriates.
April 25, 2006

RIYADH, April 25 (Reuters) - A Saudi-German plan to launch a dedicated Arabic language search engine for the World Wide Web could revolutionize the moribund Arabic Internet market, a senior official in the project said.

The new web site, dubbed "Sawafi," is planned for the last quarter of 2006 and could set a tough challenge for international search giants such as Google (Research), Microsoft's (Research) MSN and Yahoo (Research), which offer a basic Arabic search capabilities at present.

"There is no (full) Arabic Internet search engine on the market. You find so-called search engines, but they involve a directory search, not a local search. There's nothing available for overall Internet search," Hermann Havermann, managing director of German Internet tech firm Seekport, told Reuters.

"If you look at the international search engines, their functionality is non-existent. This market really lacks the support of an Arabic search engine," he said.

Seekport unveiled the project with Saudi partner Integrated Technical Solutions in Riyadh this week. The company, Sawafi, is registered in the Gulf Arab business hub of Dubai.

Sawafi is hoping to copy the success of local Chinese language search engine Baidu.com (Research), which has made huge strides in a market with over 100 million Web surfers.

Sawafi is aimed at the Arab world of 280 million people, where Internet penetration is low. There are also large expatriate Arab communities in Europe and North America.

"There are only 100 million Web pages right now in Arabic, and that's nothing. It's only 0.2 percent of the total worldwide," Havermann said.

Research commissioned from Dubai-based Internet researcher Madar shows the number of Arabic Internet users could jump to 43 million in 2008 from 16 million in 2004, Havermann said.

According to Madar, 65 percent of Arab Internet users in 2005 could not read English, which accounts for 70 percent of the material on the Internet.

Better search engines are key to a turnaround.

"There is not enough Arabic content available on the Internet. But there's no motivation to put more Arabic content on the Internet as long as you don't have a system to find the content," Havermann said.

Saudi Arabia, with an affluent population of 24 million, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, would be key places for winning online advertising to fuel Arabic search engines.

"Search engines are dependent on income from advertising, and for this you need partners and marketing agencies. They are in Dubai," Havermann said. "On the other side, the Arabic user market is in Saudi Arabia."

The Arabic online advertising market could grow to $150 million in 2008 from $10 million at present, he said.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/25/technology/arabsearch_reut0425/index.htm​

 

[septithol]

Hmm, internet filters actually aren't very effective for several reasons. First of all, because many people who loudly claim they want them in public actually like to look up *!*!*!*! in private, so either disable them, or if they are mandated by government, find ways around them.

Secondly, since a lot of people don't like the filters, and want to see things that the filters block, about a week after the filters have been put up, other people will be selling software designed to disable or get around them.

Thirdly, computer programs, like filters, are much like idiot savants, they are good at doing *exactly* what you tell them to do. But people are more creative, and find ways around this. So if you have a filter that removes anything with the words *!*!*!*! or SEX for instance, the websites will just do things like making deliberate mis-spellings which people will quickly become aware of, and spelling these words as FUK or SEXX, which will not be detected by the filter.

Lastly, there is a lot of *!*!*!*! that will appear just from entering perfectly innocent search terms. For instance, a few years ago, I looked up the term 'Silver Letters' because I wanted to get some pictures of metallic silver looking alphabet letters. And some of the pictures that came up were some very bad *!*!*!*!. What that has to do with Silver Letters I am not sure, and perhaps it is best not to ask.

Basically internet 'filters' are a feel-good measure that make some people feel important that they are 'doing something' about whatever it is on the internet they don't like. They actually accomplish nothing, other than making a whole bunch of money for the companies that make and sell the filters and other companies (or even the same companies) that sell software designed to disable or get around the filters. IMHO, it would be far better if rather than people worrying about what others look up on the internet, all this money was spent on something useful, like buying food for the hungry.

 

[islamerica]

Regardless, it is an option for those who wish to choose it. There is a jewish search engine as well with the same concept to block out all the adult material and other junk. And believe it or not, there are people out there who wish not to be bombarded with adult trash when trying to search for something and they would prefer the same for their kids. Not everyone will try to bypass or buy software to go around to the path of immorality

 

[septithol]

Regardless, it is an option for those who wish to choose it. There is a jewish search engine as well with the same concept to block out all the adult material and other junk. And believe it or not, there are people out there who wish not to be bombarded with adult trash when trying to search for something and they would prefer the same for their kids. Not everyone will try to bypass or buy software to go around to the path of immorality

I suppose if somebody wants to spend their money on a filter for themselves, it is their money to do what they want with. However, I maintain it is a WASTE of their money for a couple different reasons:

1. Such filters aren't perfect, they may get *!*!*!*! anyways, such as I did, when I did my search for 'Silver Letters'.

2. If they have kids, the kids will find a way around the filter, if they want to.

3. If they or their kids don't want to look at *!*!*!*!, the filter is redudant, they can just close the window to any *!*!*!*! they find accidentally.

 

[strive-may-i]

I suppose if somebody wants to spend their money on a filter for themselves, it is their money to do what they want with. However, I maintain it is a WASTE of their money for a couple different reasons:

1. Such filters aren't perfect, they may get *!*!*!*! anyways, such as I did, when I did my search for 'Silver Letters'.

2. If they have kids, the kids will find a way around the filter, if they want to.

3. If they or their kids don't want to look at *!*!*!*!, the filter is redudant, they can just close the window to any *!*!*!*! they find accidentally.

These sites are just trying to, reduce the probability of accidental *!*!*!*!, thrown at the searcher. Yes most understand or will realize,that *!*!*!*!, occassionally comes out, despite all the caution and care taken. The first filter offcourse is ones mind and intent.

 

[faaraa]

I am sorry if I am making a dim / foolish question here..

Can I have the link for the actual "search engine" ???

Forgive me if that question was our of boundary....

I read the thread, but i could not find the "search engine"

 

[islamerica]

I am sorry if I am making a dim / foolish question here..

Can I have the link for the actual "search engine" ???

Forgive me if that question was our of boundary....

I read the thread, but i could not find the "search engine"

Then you missed it in the first post

http://www.imhalal.com

 

[septithol]

These sites are just trying to, reduce the probability of accidental *!*!*!*!, thrown at the searcher. Yes most understand or will realize,that *!*!*!*!, occassionally comes out, despite all the caution and care taken. The first filter offcourse is ones mind and intent.

What actually seems to work best, is if *!*!*!*! is legal, but regulated in your country, and getting the makers of *!*!*!*! websites to agree to some sort of voluntary compliance, where they will either voluntarily conform their sites to the most usual filters people use, so they do not show up, or have sort of a 'warning' page, where the person is asked if they actually intend to visit their site.

Making them illegal in a country doesn't work, as they can just move their physical presence to another country, and continue to put *!*!*!*! on the website of the country where they are illegal. Creating filters and not getting their cooperation also does not work well, as instead of complying with the filters, the makers of the *!*!*!*! will then hire computer programmers to specifically find a way around the filters, and bombard everyone with uwanted *!*!*!*!.

 

[queenislam]

:salam2:


Thank you for sharing
this,sister.

~May Allah swt reward you
for your good effort~Amin!

Take care!
~Wassalam