They started by the UAE job market but will be expanding across the entire region soon.

Laazi’s design is very simplistic, and attempts to make things as easy as possible for jobseekers, by eliminating the usually long registration steps; making it very quick to sign up and start searching for jobs on the portal. 

To register with Laazi, a user only needs to upload their CV, and then all information is extracted from there to automatically fill in the registrations forms. All the user has to do then is check if all the information was filled correctly, make whatever modifications he needs and save his profile.

Laazi enters a market with some already big and established players, but hopes that by cutting down the time to create an account and start searching for jobs, they’ll be able to lure users their way and get them to use their service.

The beta version of Laazi was launched in September 2008; it’s a product of Danat, the same company behind Logta, which was previously reviewed here.

# Laazi 

This is the fourth such event in the region, with previous ones held in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The event will be hosted on the virutal job fair section of Bayt’s website and will run from the 18th to the 22nd of January.

The platform, called Tiger Fish, is planned to offer advertising services similar in concept to those provided by Facebook and MySpace.

“The Middle East is the second-fastest growing market for social media behind Africa,” Steve Vaile, the chief executive and founder of H2O New Media, told The National. “I think the region needs its own online advertising platform, which is why we have been developing the Tiger Fish network. It will allow advertisers to target the users who want to view their ads.”

Although Tiger Fish claims to have access to more than 300,000 locally based consumers on both English and Arabic content platforms, Mr Vaile said the focus would be mostly on those who speak English. The new platform would offer businesses that previously would have taken products from the US or Europe the opportunity to have local support and consultancy. “There’s a lot that goes into an application like this.”

There isn’t much more detail out there about Tiger Fish yet, but my understanding is that it’s based around the different social media communities H2O New Media has built, leveraging the database of different user profiles in this network of online community services to offer advertisers the chance to target specific segments more precisely.

Their aim was to present the content in an attractive way with very little advertising to help users maximize their sales online, while retaining the concept ”results in 1 or 2 clicks”.

The service is now available in three languages: English, French and Spanish; and has integrated a number of new features like: simple and fast single page ad posting, optimized search tools, and two options to display ads (list or photo gallery).

Another new interesting additiong is the concept of user galleries; Users with a SokoMaroc account can now setup a personal space “gallery” to present their items for sale and details of their activities. They can personalize this space with their logo / photo, contact info and a unique url for it to share with friends and potential buyers.

A Facebook application is also being developed and should be released soon.

SokoMaroc.com has been active since November 2007 and is run by Soko tech, which is based in Boston US.

SokoMaroc.com is a central network of online communities in Morocco featuring free classified ads organized geographically and by categories (Jobs, Real Estate, Auto-Motorbikes, Personals, For Sale, Services, Community, and Resume categories) and forums on various topics in Morocco. The site currently serves over one million page views and 50 000 unique visitors per month.

Google Calendar is a tool that simplifies keeping track of events, special occasions, and appointments — whether they’re on your own agenda or on the calendars of contacts who opt to share their schedules with you. Now users that prefer to use the Hijri Calendar can add this feature.

“Launching the Google Hijri Calendar showcases our effort to focus on the needs of users locally. Calendar is a great tool for organizing your life,” said Wael Ghonim, Marketing Manager. “It’s another of our efforts to provide users with fast, easy-to-use applications that help to simplify your life in a way that is locally relevant for users who want Hijri Calendar dates.”

To add the Hijri Calendar you need to sign in to your Google Account and go to your calendar. Once there click on settings. Under the General tab you can scroll down to Alternate Calendars and select the Hijri calendar of your choice.

There are three types of Hijri calendars available: Standard, Kuwaiti and Saudi Hijri calendars.

# Google Calendar

The Facebook application enables all Facebook users to generate invoices, quotations, pro forma invoices, and delivery notes in PDF format easily and directly from inside Facebook.

Users already registered with Tools4Com OIS can also access their list of documents and download them from the application as well.

The Tools4Com OIS facebook application is available in French only for the time being. The full service through the Tools4Com website is currently available in French and German, with English on the way, and Arabic planned for the future.

# Tools4Com OIS Facebook Application

President/CEO Samer Majali, who signed the agreement with OnAir CEO Benois Debains, said that the OnAir service will enable Royal Jordanian passengers to use their mobile phones and BlackBerry-type devices to send and receive text messages and emails, and to make and receive mobile phone calls in flight, as well as to use their laptops to access Internet.

He indicated that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) granted airworthiness certification to OnAir, testifying that neither Mobile OnAir system nor multiple mobiles cause harmful interference to any of the aircraft’s avionics systems.

Majali pointed out that phase one of the agreement stipulates installing the system by the Airbus company in two Airbus A319 that will be joining the fleet in February and March next year.  The second phase of the agreement includes implementing the Mobile OnAir Service on the airline’s single-aisle A320 family, installed with a standalone GSM/GPRS system at the end of 2009. 

Passengers will be able to use their own mobile phones during flights, above 3,000 meters, whereas during take offs and landings, the service will not be operative.  

Majali added: “Mobile OnAir will allow unlimited text messages and emails to be sent, and will allow up to 11 simultaneous voice calls. A central feature of the service is the crew’s ability to turn it off at any time, or switch it to “silent” – text and email only – mode, enabling the airline to customize the services to passengers’ preferences. For example, airlines could turn off the voice element, or even the whole service, during quiet times.”

He also said that the Mobile OnAir Service is one important move that will pave the way for airline mobile self-care services. This will allow the passenger to check the flight status, do his check in, view his itineraries and manage bookings, such as changing flights, selecting seats, requesting upgrades, booking bags and selecting meals. Additionally, it offers passengers information about their destination. “Royal Jordanian is at the forefront of e-travel. This includes providing passengers with the ability to plan trips, book online, issue e-tickets, make online seat reservations and use self check-in kiosks at the airport. We are now pleased to offer the latest technology: on board communications services, enabling our passengers to carry on with their travel planning, as well as to communicate with their colleagues, friends and families, in exactly the same way they can on the ground,” commented Majali.

OnAir signed roaming agreements with the world’s mobile operators, among which three Jordanian mobile operators: Zain, Orange and Umniah. The service is invoiced by the passenger’s home mobile operator at international roaming rates

OnAir was incorporated in February 2005 and is owned by Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive product line on the market, and SITA, the world-leading provider of air transport focused applications, communications and IT infrastructure.

“Visitors”, features statistics and charts of the number of visitors each page/blog receives, with the ability to track number of pageviews, top viewed content, visitors’ countries, and much more .

Jeeran, Arabic for neighbors, is a pioneer Arab online community that offers a variety of web 2.0 services including blogging, photo and video sharing, as well as web hosting, aiding individuals to create their own presence on the internet, with minimum technical knowledge.

The launch of Visitors comes to complement Jeeran’s vision that aims to offer a unique and complete user experience to their users.

Commenting on the new tool, Laith Zraikat, Director of Innovation and Co-Founder of Jeeran.com, said: “We are so excited about Visitors as it puts our users in control, it’s very user-friendly and easy to operate, and it doesn’t need any installation or technical efforts.”

Mr. Zraikat also added: “With the growing popularity of user-generated-content communities such as Jeeran, bloggers and websites owners, as well as photo and video sharing enthusiasts, are in need for a free and reliable tool to evaluate their contribution to the web.”

Over the past few years, the community of Jeeran grew-up to host more than one million active users, in addition to 650,000 websites, and a growing community of bloggers that exceeded 120,000 blogs, the largest blog community in the Arab world.

Omar Kudsi, Jeeran’s President and Co-Founder welcomed the launch of Visitors, and quoted: “Our tracking system is user-friendly and comes in both Arabic and English, which offers a convenient Arabic-language tool to measure visitors and traffic.”

Mr. Zraikat pointed out that Visitors is already available for all users on Jeeran without the need of any installation, he also stressed on the fact that many features will be added to the system soon.

Kudsi concluded: “We strive to offer Arab users a top notch web experience that empowers them to contribute, communicate and interact, and Visitors is just the beginning of a series of features and products in the pipeline.”

BusinessBuyAndSell.me offers a number of services, such as listing businesses for buying and selling with the option to search by category and region; listing and finding global franchise opportunities available for the Middle East; receiving auto-updates on new listings based on saved search criteria; advertising opportunities; with a number of other value-added services that will be launched with the non-beta version within the next 6 Months.

The directory of listings on BusinessBuyAndSell.me is a free service for buyers, which will enable them to search opportunities by location, category and size of businesses. Potential buyers can also have their search criteria saved and regularly receive listing updates, based on their specific requirements. Owners who plan to sell their businesses or franchises can register online and list their offerings on the website and find potential buyers in a much faster, easier and convenient way, as opposed to traditional methods of newspaper advertising.

As an introductory offer, all listings are free of cost during the trial period and huge reductions in advertising rates are available.

Commenting on the portal’s launch, Mr. Shabeer Mohamed, RichWeb’s Managing Partner, said: “Buying and selling businesses and franchises is a key area of economic activity all over the world. However, until now, there has been no proper domain in the region for potential buyers and sellers to come in contact with each in a fast and easy manner, I am sure our service will come as a saviour to many establishments seeking to restructure their operations.”

Other related services that BusinessBuyAndSell.me plans to offer include providing details of available business loans, business-related services and other useful resources. 

# Source: Maktoob Business