Ras2Ras, which means “Head to head” in Arabic, is a new Arabic service from Yemen, which is built around a very simple yet really interesting idea: putting any two comparable things against each other, and letting people vote on which they like best.
These comparisons are called ‘battles’, and competing against each other we can find products, services, websites, people or anything really; and then through user voting we can find out which one the people prefer.
Users can also leave their comments on the battle, which can provide more insight into what people like about a certain ‘competitor’, or what they find negative about the other.
Anybody can register for free and start a new battle between two things for the people to vote on. Battles can be tagged for easier search, and users can also view all battles started by the same user.
Now, even though the idea is very simple in principle, it is very useful and really helps in a number of situations, some serious ones and others that could be for fun, which makes it all the more interesting.
The most obvious and interesting use is as a research tool; for example it can help businesses get people’s feedback on them with regards to their biggest competitor and understand why through the comments to better identify ways to build on their strengths and fill in their weakness gaps; The tool can also come in handy for a person wanting to buy a certain thing and not knowing which is best, and hoping that the community can help them out. And the list of examples where it can help in research can go on.
Ras2Ras was built by Yemeni internet solutions company 
Yemen Server. The design is pretty simplistic and straight-forward, focused on the battle and the vote, just like it should be. The service is available in Arabic only for the time being and is still in beta mode, as they’ll be rolling out more features.
# Ras2Ras
a good looking site with simple layout. it well implemented. and i can see a bright future for it. i am going through a moment now where i am saying to my self why didn’t i think of that 😀
gr8 work
a good looking site with simple layout. it well implemented. and i can see a bright future for it. i am going through a moment now where i am saying to my self why didn’t i think of that 😀
gr8 work
Nice ! I love the idea and the implementation is pretty good. I think more time need to spent on the little usability details and on a couple more features but I can see a huge potential for a viral marketing effect.
Nice ! I love the idea and the implementation is pretty good. I think more time need to spent on the little usability details and on a couple more features but I can see a huge potential for a viral marketing effect.
Salam guys,
Thanks to Mohamed, Fouad and Habib.
We strive to improve our project, and we will consider your input for future releases and updates.
Its an honor to get this feedback from you Habib, and I would really appreciate if you can elaborate on the viral marketing effect that you see a potential for?
Fouad, I know what you are feeling man, I have been feeling that way for 4 years, and finally I decided to form a hard working team and make others feel this way 🙂
Amad
Salam guys,
Thanks to Mohamed, Fouad and Habib.
We strive to improve our project, and we will consider your input for future releases and updates.
Its an honor to get this feedback from you Habib, and I would really appreciate if you can elaborate on the viral marketing effect that you see a potential for?
Fouad, I know what you are feeling man, I have been feeling that way for 4 years, and finally I decided to form a hard working team and make others feel this way 🙂
Amad
Hey Amad,
You are welcome. Below are some tips, hope it helps 🙂
1 – Ride the wave of hot trends. You can make use of Google Trends. For example “نور التركي” ,سنوات الضياع” or maybe the Olympics now are all hot items in the Arab world.
2 – Give your users more control make them feel part of a community. One example is to allow users to create contained sub-pages. For example friends at school could create a private page to compare between classes or professors etc …
3 – Create an API and have other sites use it. For example you can have multiple tech blogs run the same ras2ras race between Yahoo and Google.
4 – Make your site more social. You could create seasonal tournaments. For example you could have an Olympics tournament where users would pick their favorites in each category and if their choice wins they would get points. Something along the lines of Fantasy Sports but you could probably expand that to many other aspects such as Star Academy etc … basically get your users more involved …
Look at Google Friend Connect. You might be able to leverage some of the features they offer
Hope this helps 🙂
Hey Amad,
You are welcome. Below are some tips, hope it helps 🙂
1 – Ride the wave of hot trends. You can make use of Google Trends. For example “نور التركي” ,سنوات الضياع” or maybe the Olympics now are all hot items in the Arab world.
2 – Give your users more control make them feel part of a community. One example is to allow users to create contained sub-pages. For example friends at school could create a private page to compare between classes or professors etc …
3 – Create an API and have other sites use it. For example you can have multiple tech blogs run the same ras2ras race between Yahoo and Google.
4 – Make your site more social. You could create seasonal tournaments. For example you could have an Olympics tournament where users would pick their favorites in each category and if their choice wins they would get points. Something along the lines of Fantasy Sports but you could probably expand that to many other aspects such as Star Academy etc … basically get your users more involved …
Look at Google Friend Connect. You might be able to leverage some of the features they offer
Hope this helps 🙂
Salam Habib,
Thanks for your valuable input.. I really like all of your ideas, especially #4. I really appreciate your support and feedback. Best wishes for your project too 🙂
Just wanted to update startuparabia with the following:
قرر الفريق تطوير اليوم بدء تكوين إصدار جديد للموقع (Beta 1.2) وسيتم استخدام الأفكار والاقتراحات المقدمة من الزوار في تحديد التطويرات التي سيتضمنها هذا الإصدار.
Please visit this page to help us decide what we should include in our next release..
http://www.ras2ras.com/blog/?p=38
Salam Habib,
Thanks for your valuable input.. I really like all of your ideas, especially #4. I really appreciate your support and feedback. Best wishes for your project too 🙂
Just wanted to update startuparabia with the following:
قرر الفريق تطوير اليوم بدء تكوين إصدار جديد للموقع (Beta 1.2) وسيتم استخدام الأفكار والاقتراحات المقدمة من الزوار في تحديد التطويرات التي سيتضمنها هذا الإصدار.
Please visit this page to help us decide what we should include in our next release..
http://www.ras2ras.com/blog/?p=38