Q8Ba7th Official Blog

Another nice contacts search feature I wanted to shed some light on. Kuwait University Website has a very nice and quick search service for all Kuwait University employees contacts, and ofcourse that includes your professors and teaching assistance. The search interface is pretty simple, alas not properly implemented.

As you see, for Employee you search for first, second, or anywhere in the name. Selecting first name however returned submatching second name words! So it does not function the way it’s supposed to be. Either the implementation is wrong, or they entered the whole employee name in the first name field for simplicity. I do that in my phone contacts . But my phone contact is not a general search service so it doesn’t matter. You can also search for departments if you like, but most of the time you’d be interested in direct professor contact I presume.

Popularity: 25% [?]

We spoke earlier about new Phone Search service that was added to Q8Ba7th to allow you to search for phone numbers in Kuwait more quickly and easily. So far I’ve been hearing some positive feedback, and some points on why some information is missing. One of the items that are missing is as I mentioned earlier, dynamically generated data. In human words, those are pages that are only generated when you submit certain forms for example. A very useful link I wanted to have is the Ministry of Education full schools phone directory, categorized by region and level. just select the region you want, level, and search. It’s quite easy, and hopefully up to date. Not many schools would change their phone number there, I can’t think of a reason why they would.

Those information are not reachable by Q8Ba7th, which is powered by Google, or most regular search engines. The reason is that as you see, the page is empty unless you fill in some filter and search data. So a search engine wouldn’t know how to fill it. The Ministry phone numbers it self however is searchable, because as you see from the link, it opens the phones page directly without having to fill any data to get it. So Search Engines are able to see it.

Enough technical now. Another listing that may be of interest, though usually not rich in value, is the Schools site listing. The ministry has made it easy for schools to host their site on the MOE subpages. So if you go to this link, you will see list of schools and can pick yours if it exist. Non of my previous schools are listed however .

Popularity: 20% [?]

I have been asked to visit and give Cash Art an honest review of my own. Although I like to pick the sites to review to avoid spammy requests, this recommendation was for an online fashion art shopping site that is a kind of new concept in Kuwait and I decided to shed some light on. Now before I go any further I want you to rest assured I am not a fashion guy at all and I hardly bare to shop for clothes few times a year. So I will leave the quality of the art review to you and focus on usability and service of the site.

Cash Art is the initiative of Fine Arts graduate from the American Intercontinental University in London named Alia Al-Naqeeb. The main idea behind this project is T-Shirts with artwork design on them driven from different currencies. Below shown is a sample back view of a Hummingbird T-Shirt that is priced at 27 KD.

If you ask me, I wouldn’t spend that much on a T-Shirt. But then again, I am not into fashion as a whole. The site allows you to see each Shirt from 3 different views for better feeling. You get to select the size of the Shirt, while some come in only one size. Payment is possible by Cash (inside Kuwait only), Knet, or Credit Card. Only item exchange is possible for Cash payment inside Kuwait. So if you are buying from Kuwait, perhaps Cash is your best choice. I don’t understand why other payment options don’t have exchange with them, even though I know Knet payments come with online interface for the merchant to reverse transactions pretty easily. Shipping inside Kuwait is FREE, but takes from 1-3 business days. My advise, in Kuwait, if you want to please your customers, guarantee next day shipping at the most. Worldwide shipping is also an option, that’s first time I see it inside Kuwait. International Shipping is through DHL and as per standard DHL shipping rates.

Site is mostly based on Flash, not my preferred choice. It’s pretty easy to browse though and the collection is not huge yet so you wouldn’t find problems finding your item. I think the Flash part though is adding a bit to the response time, and it could be improved.

To sum the goods and bads in clean list, we look first at the Pros:

1. Nice new idea to be implemented online in Kuwait.
2. Various payment options made available
3. Site browsing is relatively easy although I don’t like the small FRAME in middle with scroll bar. Most of the screen size is not used
4. International Shipping: She is thinking global so that’s nice.
5. Multiple sizes and thumbnail views

Cons:

1. Flash Based: For a shopping site, customer is coming to complete his transaction and the Flashy stuff will not make his job easier. Also, it will affect the Search Engine Optimization. Click here to see only 3 links are indexed by Google. That means most people searching the internet would not land on this site. SEO is an excellent way of continuous free traffic. I would suggest a light-weight text-based version option to users (and search engines). I think showing the T-Shirt in Flash 360o would be cool, but not browsing the site.
2. Price: This is just how I feel about it.
3. Return Policy: Online exchange for Cash inside kuwait.
4. Not utilizing the whole screen enforces the use of scroll-bar to browse even a single item. Not very convenient.
5. When adding an item to the cart, moving your cursor over it would display a friendly pop-up message with item description. That message flickers most of the time.
6. Registration Form: A bit long and blurry within the small border of the page. Also no highlight of required fields. Some people may not wish to put their mobile or home number. I suggest also a preferred way of contact: Email, mobile, home number.
7. Shipping speed in Kuwait is a bit long.

Sorry if I’ve been a bit harsh, but I was asked for fair review . I like to see new online businesses popping in Kuwait and review is hopefully a small way of helping them move forward. Good luck!

Popularity: 15% [?]

It’s been a while since any major update happened at Q8Ba7th. At first, I was busy with Q8igg, and then during Ramadan things just weren’t going as I wanted them. But I have been working slowly and silently on something new. It’s not a technical breakthrough, but it’s something that will hopefully ease for people in Kuwait finding the information they want. Another custom search has been created to search for Phones numbers in Kuwait. I noticed that many sites list large amount of useful phone numbers, and many companies as well have their phone number listed at their site. But try to search that phone number on Google. Most of the time it’s not easy because of the increasing number of pages that have the same keyword. Say you are looking for a worldwide famous restaurant number. You would get large number of results. Now try it with Q8Ba7th search for Kuwait site. You may also have difficulty finding that information from the increasing number of blogs talking about each and every restaurant or company they deal with.

With Q8Ba7th Phone Search, we have tried to restrict the search to pages with useful phone numbers, and also the contact pages of companies and different sites. All in one custom search for you to find. That means you will get much smaller results in general, but more focused as well. In some occasions, where site does not provide company number, or the whole site is flash based, we try to put the link as close and relevant as possible. Sometimes to the contact us form, and others to the main flash page where it’s easy to browse then to the phone number usually.

So why don’t you give it a try now and search for something like وزارة المالية, hardees, Embassy, or anything else you may need. See if you can find it. To switch between phone search and general search, please use the new radio buttons below the search box to specify your search.

I’ll have to be honest with one thing. Building this directory hasn’t been much of fun, low on technical challenges, so much time wasting that I even thought about abandoning the idea several times before I saw some potential to it. Nevertheless building the index have taught me a lot on how to plan for the information to be retrievable and useful for the end user. It has also confirmed to me once again Google Custom Search has still some work to do before it’s stable enough. Read below to see why you may not find the information you are looking for at times.

Why Can’t I Find The Information I Need?

Wish you could find everything that easy, and we will try our best to make it as good as possible. Not finding your result could be for several reasons. (Warning: Some technical details included below):

1. You did not write the exact phrase: As there is no intelligence in the search, you will mostly need to write the name exactly as it was written. Try different wording, and try to search for it in both English & Arabic. Some famous brands have only listed their brand name in one language. Sometimes only in English when it is commonly used in Arabic among public.
2. The site or information is not searchable: Google Custom Search can go through text only. They cannot search your flash site or phone number that’s inside an image.
3. The site is not titled properly: Unfortunately, many sites ignore the necessity of the Title for the reader and searching engines, and simply use the title as Contact Us. So when I search for the company name, the search engine may not return the result as the company name is not written in the title, and sometimes only written within an image header. Making the search engine clueless on what the page is about. A more convenient and better way would be to write “Q8Ba7th – Contact Us” in the title. Also, company or site name should be visible at top of the page as well. If it’s inside an image, then use the Alt attribute to label it accordingly. Otherwise search engines can’t return it as a result for the user query. You would be missing your target customer traffic in that case.
4. Dynamic Content: Like the Ministry of Education School Search. Loads of useful information are only pulled from their system dynamically upon user custom search query, thus making it hidden from search engines. Otherwise, you would be able to run a query for “مدرسة بيان الثانوية” and get your result.
5. It’s not added to our index: We do not have all sites of Kuwait added most certainly. We are working hard to enhance our directory all the time. So if you happen to know a resource or URL we are missing, please let us know.
6. Bugs?: Yes. Our search is powered by Google Custom Search, which is a great service by the way but it needs more tweaking. Sometimes even the pages that are added to the index are not returned in the results. We have contacted Google for the issue and they seem to be improving their index all the time. Forza Google!

Please, feel free to use the service, and be encouraged to give me back your feedback on it.

Popularity: 46% [?]

I finally got to order from Taw9eel and be able to give them decent review after they started shipping to Egaila. The site, while not best in design, is pretty fast and easy to use as it’s mostly Ajax based. Rarely you will see page refreshing. This makes shopping really a lot lot easier. Also, most products come with thumbnail, even if not best of quality images. For some reason, for Abraaj water cartoon they did not allow me to add more than 4 items! Seemed a bit weird but that’s OK. So I added 4 only and extra few items just for the sake of trying it. As you checkout from their site for the first time, few minutes later a Kuwaiti gentle guy calls to confirm your address for first order only. An indian guy wearing some home dress was at my door. The truck it self is Taw9eel branded but the indian guy was not dressed properly to present a company really. Who cares I said! They were gentle and gave me the items in nice clean bag.

Yeah beside water it was mostly junk . I just wanted to try something, and this thing definitely won’t be vegetables. You have to hand pick those stuff from the store your self eventually, but I am just saying, for large and/or frequent packed items, this service could come in handy. you can see the bag was organized nice and clean. I paid the driver on delivery, wouldn’t suggest Knet as you have the option of checking your order first here, and last time I checked, their certificate was expired!

So now I got my order home. What do I think of the service in general?

Pros:

1. The site is fast and easy to use relatively, even though it does not sub-categorize items properly. This will get difficult once they have too many items, but search is supposed to do the trick
2. Their delivery service is fast, clean and neat as you saw.
3. It would save me trouble of frequent and heavy stuff like Water cartoons and cloth washing materials.

Cons:

1. Price: Comparing it to normal grocery store, and even though they don’t charge separately for shipping, their prices are way too high, sometimes double the price. For example, Nice kitco is for 150 fils compared to 100 fils in grocery. Abraaj water cartoon is 1.045 KD compared to 600 fils approx. in grocery! That’s way too much for just a delivery. %50-%100 extra. Unless you really have excess of money and want to buy the luxury of life to that extent, or in really bad shape when you need certain items and can’t get it your self, there is no reason to pay that much extra difference. For me, I don’t think I coming near it even though the service it self was quite good and I would love to have such a thing at a reasonable price.
2. Variety: I told them about that before and they said they keep adding items regularly to their store, as they don’t pick up items from the grocery it self as it seems. But still, if I want to pay extra to get rid of shopping headache, I have to be able to find all items I need online. And all the brand I need. For example I don’t like Heinz Ketchup or that certain cloth washing brand just doesn’t suit me. If only one item is missing, that means I still have to go to the store, get it and stand in line!
3. Presentation: As I said, their truck, shipping bag and all are Ta9eel branded, while their driver looked like some freelancer. This is not a big problem though, but it’s still a point.
4. Some weird limitations on quantity when I wanted to buy 5 cartoons of water. There wasn’t any proper reason why I can’t. Is it Tarsheed .

Popularity: 27% [?]

The famous Kids Kingdom shop Baroue have already started showing online Google Ads for their upcoming site.

I still haven’t been there I am waiting for good quiet time to visit this shop everybody seems to be talking about. I have a question though. At first, I thought this Baroue is worldwide brand that is coming to Kuwait. Then I came to know Baroue has a meaning as Kuwaiti word, and the site is now Coming Soon. Searching for the shop worldwide I was not able to spot it. The reason I assumed it’s global brand is their nice theme, the strong idea to have the largest kids shop in the largest mall in Kuwait, and the way they presented their brand all over Kuwait and now almost no one doesn’t know it. I’ll have to say, if this is all coming from a Kuwaiti mind, it’s really really great.

Other nice things to see along the way are:

1- Companies are realizing the importance of having online presentation of their physical store. I would love also to see some online shopping there from such a big brand. It could do great in holiday season. Send Gift to someone’s child online!
2- More and more people are realizing the power and importance of online ads rather than just relying on expensive non-targeted TV, newspaper and street ads. In the end, this is good for many other Kuwaiti existing and upcoming sites. Means you can give the service for FREE and rely on the targeted Kuwaiti ads served by Google, just as the case with this site and Q8igg.

Popularity: 43% [?]

MENAFILE is a company that seems to be providing a neat and organized service of physical document storage in a time where companies are moving to the digital content storage, scanning all their documents into soft copies. Many companies in Kuwait still prefer or is forced to use physical documents for legality issues. Piles and piles of faxes, forms, contracts and official letters become difficult to store and manage properly, so what this company promise is to store them where it’s safe and in an organized way that makes it easy to retrieve.

As the company sees it, if you have your own storage area the you are either not utilizing it fully, as you have extra space, or you are over utilizing it and it’s getting condensed with forms. The way they store your documents is based on boxes. Minimum of 50 and it can go up to 50,000 boxes. You have more? Well I wouldn’t worry about that as in that case they must upgrade you to their premium customer . The FAQ section talks about the accessibility of the forms, and if it’s as they claim it is, that’s not bad at all.

Almost as if they were in your office, in the case that a particular record is required, the client simply calls, faxes, e-mails, or enters a request through our secure web server. Our advanced software is able to track the file required instantaneously, if the client requires the original file it can be sent within the hour, by the end of the business day, or by the beginning of the next business day depending on urgency. Alternatively, if it is not confidential, the particular record within the file can be faxed, or scanned and sent to the client’s e-mail inbox.

1 hour delivery, or fax it for non-critical documents. I assume ofcourse they have a record of when each document or box was last opened and by whom, otherwise you can’t trust it. Another thing they don’t specify is holidays and after working hours. Many companies are forced to work to late hours to overlap with Europe and US, or perhaps working over wekend of long holiday. In such times, if I am in desperate need of certain document, how will it work out? There are some nice screen shots from inside the warehouse showing the access cards and hand-held devices used to track packages and access to them.

Popularity: 16% [?]

While it doesn’t have the best of design that suits a governmental site, and even though the site does not have any special online services of its own, going today through Kuwait e.Government site I managed to find lots of information and useful links that might come in handy when you need them. From the main page, you get to browse list of government, foundations, institutions and other online Kuwait site with direct link to some of their information and useful services.

Go through them and see what you may find of interest. It won’t harm to know what’s available for you online, even if some links are broken or some data is outdated. It’s still better than nothing. After that, you can click on the Public Information link to go to list of sites and phone numbers that might really come in handy. Phone number of embassies, police stations, fire stations, schools, co-cops and others. I can’t go and call every number to verify its up to date, but those general numbers don’t change so often, and when you need one, well just give it a try and see. If you ever tried it and some sleepy angry man shouted back at you be sure to let me know so I correct this .

Popularity: 19% [?]

We spoke before about the Legal Information Network of the Gulf, and how it makes the constitution laws for Gulf countries accessible online. Something very useful to have at the click of a mouse. Nevertheless, the constitution is not everything. There are the legislation, provisions, and decisions that’s been made. Kuwait Lawyers site makes these information and more available for you online. I would love to go through the details of Kuwait laws, understand them more in depth and know what’s for me and what’s my responsibility. It’s very useful to have at least a general idea about those kind of information, as you never know when you’re gonna need them. Friend of mine told me he caught a thief in his house but it turns out you can’t press charges on him as the outside door was not locked but only closed! Would you even think of that?

Alas, not even a single page of information is accessible without paying annual registration fees of 140 KD minimum, that’s 11 KD/month approx $38.5. This is too much for general interest read only, but for someone who’s into this area it could be useful. Still, I think giving users 2-3 pages of FREE access does not harm and would enable us to value the service more. I wouldn’t pay 140 KD for something I did not see how good it is. I also wished such a service would be accessible to all, and the business model would be different. Ofcourse the owners spent their time and effort and have the right to lay down which ever business case they see more appropriate. But the way I would see it is to have all the information for FREE, and have sponsors for the site. The site is all about law so it’s already targeted. I would think many lawyers would like their image ad showing beside those useful information. For example I am reading about check related issues and a relevant ad for lawyers specialized in that area show on the side. If that business case works, then it would be WIN/WIN for site owners, visitors and sponsoring lawyers.

If anyone have tried it, please make sure to share your experience with us.

Popularity: 12% [?]

This service has been there for a time, but I used to get Errors when I try to open it. MOC is making all public citizen phone numbers available online through simple name query. This could be really helpful, and harmful in the wrong hand. I wouldn’t feel like listing my number there, and I was not able to find it actually. Probably perhaps I requested it to be private. I was able to find my relatives numbers and also their registered corporate numbers. So here is how you use the service. First, go to the MOC site, then from the left side menu go to Services -> Phone Directory 101 as shown below.

You will then see the below screen where you simply put the name, and family name if you want. Take care of different name writing in Arabic. Start by your name, if it’s something like mohammad or Fatmah, then save your breath and add middle or last names as well. Their last name seems to be something different however I was not able to find certain numbers counting on that. So instead, write your first, second name in first field and see where you go from there.

Popularity: 19% [?]