Q8Ba7th Official Blog » Reviews

Marina Mall = Basta Mall

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:53:05 +0000

The visit before my last, I was so disappointed and distracted all the time by how Marina Mall has turned into, and I can only guess it relates to the Avenues invasion. Each parking lot has small sign before it, that would seem like handicapped parking only at first. Corridors were filled with booths from all kinds, some even blocking the outside view of some shops. restaurant tables are all covered with company ads. Well that last one might seem ok, but over all you get the feeling they’re sacrificing quality for short-term profits.

This last Wednesday however, I’ve seen the worst of all. Big chunk of the booths are gone, but on one of the sides, this is what I saw.

Yes, this is inside Marina Mall. I looked at it today in disbelief again. How could they allow it to go this low? Is there no limit to how bad the mall can get if it makes few extra bucks today, never mind tomorrow?

Sad really.

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Wazeefa1 Spamming

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:41:09 +0000

I started receiving several copies of this spam email in the last couple of days. I’m not sure how many of you have had as well.

Now I have safely ignored it for the first time, but as it kept receiving more and more copies, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Regardless of the supposedly opt-out message at the bottom, I want to know how did I get added in the first place to this acs-newsletter.com. I also got a similar email from acs-ads.com. Both of which have no launched site. How did they get my email then? Doing a whois on the site, you can tell they belong to a company called Absolute Career Solution.

And Googling for the Absolute Career Solution name, I came across one company in Kuwait with that slogan, namely Wazeefa1. But that might just be a coincidence. But once you whois Wazeefa1, things become so clear.

Clearly belonging to the same owner, Nedal, and under same company name, Absolute Career Solutions, a.k.a Absolute Spam Solutions. I did a search on my email, and no, I do not see any record of me registering with Wazeefa1. And if for the sake of argument I did register (to seek for jobs), why would I receive Sultan Center restaurant spam ads?

So do your self a favor, and stay away from this site. Nothing good can come from a business being run this way.

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Ministry of Education Released Electronic Course Material Version

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:00:30 +0000

The Ministry of Education in Kuwait have released electronic versions of the Kuwait public school course materials and made available for download from their website as PDF files.

I’m not sure if this includes all of the material, as I saw some First Episode books without the second, but it’s still a very good move for both students and teachers, to gain easy and quick access to the material, even if it’s late on print (like always!).

Now the real bad thing about it is how they decided to split it into chapters, and you will have to download each chapter separately.

I wonder why, as the size is really just a few MBs and bandwidth is less of an issue now. Worst case is allow for chapter or full book download. So if you really want it as a single document, follow the two simple steps:

Download all PDF files manually, or I suggest you use DownThemAll add-on for Firefox to retrieve all the relevant PDF files. Put them all in one directory.
Use MergePDF.net or else the steps described here to merge all the files in one. Make sure to keep them in the right order though.

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Al-Bairaq Cinema Review

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:35:05 +0000

Name: Al-Bairaq Mall Cinema

Type: Cinema / Shopping Mall

Location: Egaila, Block 4

Brief: The newest cinema in Kuwait, from no other than Cinescape ofcourse, opened in the recently opened Al-Bairaq mall in Egaila, featuring 3 screens only, compared to the latest brand openings in 360 and Avenues.

Review: Being few minutes drive from my place, I was still hesitant to try this cinema out. Alas, Cinescape had a clue people won’t favor this place, and showed Toy Story 3D exclusively there for a whole week at least. Being a favorite for my kid, and for the love of 3D I hold, I decided to try it out.

Parking: First let down is that, unlike 360 and Avenues, this mall has zero shaded parkings, and all parkings are outside. So you will be parking your car under the sun.

Friendliness: For the first time really I encountered some rude guys at the snacks stand. When I was standing first inline before they opened, and they started serving others from another line. I pointed that I’ve been standing here first and I shouldn’t be asked to line behind others, the Philippine seller rudely replied that this is the open cashier and they start with it. It’s not the waiting but the principle of respecting a person’s turn that would piss you off even before you start enjoying the movie.

Cleanliness: Having been opened for a week only, and being on the first show of the day, I really don’t see any explanation for unclean seats and some left overs on the floor. It wasn’t quite filthy, but not clean as well.

Disturbance: During the show, it was mostly quite. However most people are coming to the theatre to book at last minute, and the guy showing them to their seats doesn’t really care the movie started and you paid to enjoy it. He would stand in your face and point the light for the late coming people.

The Show: 3D glasses are quite as good as the 360 experience, if you have experienced it. Ofcourse it’s not IMAX here but still, the 3D experience is wonderful, BUT! It’s very hard to miss the dirt at the top right of the screen. The theatre is just one week old, I kept wondering how did the dirt make it to the top right of the screen. Doesn’t anybody notice it at least? Or doesn’t simply anyone care.

Conclusion:

Some of the raised points here are common sadly among all cinemas. Others are I think Bairaq specific. And while it’s a 5 minutes drive from my home, I think I’d rather do 30 minutes drive and enjoy my self instead, that is when I decide I want to see the movie in Kuwait Cinema and not at home.

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Q8Traffic – Follow Kuwait Traffic on Twitter

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:14:16 +0000

Name: Q8Traffic

Site: http://twitter.com/q8traffic

Type: Twitter / Info / Traffic

Language: English (mostly)

Brief: Q8Traffic is a new simple, yet can be very useful, idea. Q8Traffic is basically a twitter account that retweets all tweets that includes the hash #q8traffic. So by following it, you get what everyone else says about the traffic condition on Kuwait roads.

Example: You’re driving by Road 50 towards Kuwait City, and road jams at third ring road.

You tweet: “Traffic jam at Rd 50 towards Kuwait city near 3rd ring rd.”

As I’m following Q8Traffic, I would get an instant update about the traffic and be able to avoid it. What’s in it for you you say? What goes around comes around, and other people will be helping you as well hopefully.

Ofcourse, we’re not suggesting here you tweet while driving 120 km/h (or more) ofcourse, but if road is already jammed, this update can help others avoid the jam, and minimize it as well.

Snapshot:

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Kuwait Restaurants

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:42:01 +0000

Name: Kuwait Restaurants

Site: kuwait-restaurants.blogspot.com

Type: Food / Info

Language: English

Launch Date: August, 09

Brief: Kuwait Restaurants is a newly launched blog based directory for Kuwait restaurant phone numbers and addresses. It has just launched, so far has no photos, has a very ordinary design, and has a listing of 98 restaurants.

Since it turns out we don’t have any comprehensive listing that is constantly updating, it’s good to mark down any site with such listing for when you need it. I personally hate dialing central numbers to get restaurant number I need. I prefer to seek it online always.

Snapshots:

And by the way, you can search for their listing from Q8Ba7th Phones Search.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Q8Stock – Blog for the Kuwait Stock Market

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:11:53 +0000

Name: Q8Stock

Site: Q8Stock.blogspot.com

Type: Blog / Finance

Language: Arabic

Launch Date: March, 2007

Brief: Q8Stock is an unofficial specialized Kuwait Stock Market blog that brings you quick small tips everyday about some of the stocks performance for that day, with little advise on what to do.

What would be even greater is a small quick daily podcast that is released right after market closing, so that people will hear it on the way back from work in their car, and get an idea of the market performance. How wonderful would that be? And we all know how much interested are people into the stock market over here.

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ourKuwait for Arabic Kuwait News on Twitter

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:01:22 +0000

Name: Our Kuwait

Site: ourkuw.com (Coming Soon)

Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/ourkuwait

Type: News

Brief: Our Kuwait is a new upcoming site, still unclear how the main site will be and what will be it’s nature, but it’s already got a Twitter account, and it’s primarily about latest on the stop Kuwait news in Arabic. I’m not really a fan of local news, but this one is quite good and could help me stay updated without much hassle, I highly recommend it. ~~What’s so good about them is that they give you what they promise… News, rather than opinions which sparkle heated debates, and I hope they stay that way.~~ Just to keep it right, turns out they do give their opinion along with the news.

Just follow them on Twitter, and get updated instantly.

Their website is still under construction, but I’m sure following their Twitter account would keep you updated once it launches.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Good News Anime Fans, ArtOfHobby.com launches

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:34:21 +0000

Name: Art Of Hobby

Site: ArtOfHobby.com

Type: Shopping / Anime

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Art Of Hobby is the official online shopping site of the well known physical store among its fans, Hobby Japan, which started as a physical store back in 2002 selling famous action figures.

Review:

Very few stores offer what thousands love and adore, and this one as far as I know is the first that delivers on online shopping site in Kuwait for anime figures collection. What’s best about it is, it’s from a fan for the fans. You would see a simple design, and even the fonts used are not the professional ones usually used by companies. I think what he’s trying to achieve is a more friendly, anime like look of the site.

Pricing:

Since I’m really not an anime fan, I can have no say on the pricing. So it’s up to you guys to see and decide. What do you think?

Payment:

I’m not sure if this was just left there or that’s the method of payment, but the site shows at the bottom of the page PayPal, VISA and MasterCard as the available methods of payment. I think this was left there from the original ready made template, since PayPal is really not that popular in Kuwait. Also, point # 1 in the Terms & Conditions page seems to suggest a cash on delivery.

Delivery:

This is where it gets confusing, and let’s you feel the site should be taken more seriously. On the main page, it mentions “We deliver to your home for only 1 KWD and for orders over 50 KWD Will be free.”, and free otherwise. Now aside from the high minimum order for free delivery, the terms and conditions page puts it completely different:

3-For orders less than 99KD a customer must pay a 2KD for shipping charge.

4-Orders over 99KD will get a free Shipping.

Quite confusing. But I think the 1 KD is the most updated one. They must’ve forgotten to reflect on it in the terms page. If you wish however, you can place the order online, and pick it from the shop for FREE as well.

Refund & Exchange:

The site offers exchange only for a period of 3 days from the purchase.

Gallery:

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Logitech Kuwait Shopping Site Launches

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:00:09 +0000

Name: Logitech.com.kw

Category: Shopping / Electronics

Language: English

Launch Date: July, 2009

Brief: Logitech Kuwait is the official dealer from Logitech in Kuwait, and has taken the step of providing it’s electronics offerings online through an easy to use shopping site, with Knet payment and next day delivery through Posta Plus.

Review:

It’s nice to see brand companies like Logitech realizing the potential of online shopping, and going up with their offerings online, with next day delivery. The site design is fairly simple, no cluttered ads to slow down page loading or distract the user. Response is pretty good, and unlike some other shopping sites in Kuwait, you can complete your whole shopping before registering with the site. Registration is only required at the time of checkout.

Pricing:

Pricing of the site varies from one item to another compared to Amazon, and while most of the items end up cheaper at Amazon, the price difference is sometimes small in the range of 5 KD, something that you will end up paying a company like Aramex eventually for the shipping, if not more. In addition, many items on the Logitech site come with 2 years of warranty and product support, as opposed to being on your own once you get it from Amazon.

So next time you wanna buy a Logitech piece of hardware, give this site a look. Seek reviews on Amazon, and compare the price. Put the shipping cost and product warranty in mind as well.

Advertising:

What’s really notable is the intensive smart advertising campaign Logitech is running on Google, and quite custom to your search.

Someone’s been doing real good job at his advertising campaign.

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Kakkuii Gets New Design and Rental Packages

Q8Ba7th — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Kakkuii.com, the first Kuwait game rental site that launched last December, have done a complete revamp for the look and feel of the site, and came up with new much more appealing rental packages as well. The main site now has a blog theme taste, and is full of game videos, reviews, forums, news, and more. There is even a live chat box on the side menu. So the site now is growing more like a community site, with the added service of game rental. Quite smart! You can feel the site is like a small GameSpot version now, and I personally see a future for it.

Pricing

While the old pricing packages left a considerable amount of space for thinking, the current one is so much straight forward and easy to help you make up your mind.

So for an average of one game per month, you would pay 20 KD + (2.5 * 12), total of 50 KD for 12 games of play, average of 4.170 KD / game. And if you’re a serious gamer, then it would be the 33 KD + (5 * 12), total of 93 KD, or 3.875 KD/game. Another plus is the ability to return games you don’t like (or finish too quickly!) within a week for 1.750 KD only!

Some people want to hold the game for more than a month. Some want to own it, especially for online games like Call of Duty. But if you’re the sort of gamer who finishes a game in a week’s time and jumps to another, then this package might be just your thing.

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Maachla.com Review – Take Two

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:11:03 +0000

Name: Maachla.com

Following our initial review of Maachla.com, the guys at Maachla took the time to go through our opinion of the site and offer another chance for trying them out after the new enhancements, and after their award winning “Best Website in Kuwait” in Sheikh Salim Al-Ali Informatics Award.

Shopping Experience:

So we did give it a couple of tries. The first was for some item that was out of market for some time, and we found the item on Maachla.com and placed the order, interested to see the outcome. Shortly when the delivery time arrived, I got a call that I couldn’t attend to. Calling back their hotline, your number gets recorded and you hear a message telling you someone will call you shortly. Later on a real nice friendly guy called back and told me that specific item is out of stock, and offered an alternative if I was interested. I declined and thanked him for his call. This tells us a good thing about their customer service quality, and a bad thing about their inventory system. It’s not tied to the real Mishref Co-Op database.

The second time we ordered few regular items, including some beverages. The shortage in varieties, and availability of all size options in the beverages section did not make the experience as good as we hoped it would. Below we give quick brief about each part of the experience.

Registration:

Again, to try adding items to the basket you have to register. To register you have to give in your mobile number. How many people would wanna do that before they try out the site? Ask for these info at checkout only. Get users to try and love what you have worked hard for!

Delivery:

As explained earlier, you get to select the delivery hour up to two weeks in advance, but you cannot select the current hour for delivery. It has to be at least during the next coming hour, so even if it’s only 9:01 PM, you would have to select 10-11 PM delivery time sot. That’s the only bad part, and otherwise, their delivery is quite on time from my one time experience.

I would suggest however that in their schedule, unavailable time slots become non-selectable rather than reloading the page and coming back with a popup error message.

Inventory:

This was so disappointing for me, as it makes you unsure if what you place in your basket is available or not, which is really a bad experience. You have the option however per item to allow substitute product in case your preference is not available. Good to have, but I’m surprised this option is selected by default. Maachla should not assume I am ok with a substitute of their choice. I should be asked to approve it. So careful when you’re checking out. If you don’t want it, uncheck the allow substitute boxes.

At all rates, I believe effort should be put into tying Maachla inventory system live with Mishref Co-Op one for live item and pricing update.

Variety:

If they are operating from their own store, I would understand. But securing the deal with Mishref Co-Op should mean much larger variety of items, that is as close to shopping at Mishref Co-Op experience. In my case however, I had to browse between brands, select my second or third brand preference, because the item that’s available in Mishref Co-Op is not available in the online store. And I wish it ends there. Even when you find the brand you want, finding the size you want is another task. The squeezed item photo does not help identify it, and many sizes are missing. And with soft drinks, when you open a can, you either drink it now, or throw it away. You can’t store it for later. However even trivial items like PEPSI did not have all the common sizes, I had to go with another one, and I couldn’t even get a box set, I had to order individual cans. 7-Up was not available at all for some reason as well.

How It Should Be?

I think it would be best if a single item like PEPSI would open a PEPSI page, and I get to select per unit or box, and the size I want. All available sizes should be there logically.

Customer Service:

Customer service quality was really high, you would feel comfortable speaking to the guy over the phone and feel he’s happy to help. The idea of registering your number once you call the hotline for them to get back, while neat, is a bit inconvenient for me the customer however. When I call, I might want to talk to the guy now as I will be busy in 5 minutes or so, and this is exactly what happened to me. I called, they saved my number. I had to finish some work and be away from the phone when they called back. I call again, have to wait for their call, only to get an international call by the time they’re calling me back.

My guess is this method saves them the cost of having customer service people on the standby 24/7 when they don’t have that heavy load. This way they can arrange for the call at their own time, but it comes at a cost I guess.

Pricing

This is where is struck me hard. At checkout, you get to see this confusing message.

So what they are literally saying here is you have no way of knowing the final bill until the items are delivered to your door. At least that’s how I understand it, and the way I do, it doesn’t make any sense, and if I don’t like the bill, I have the right to refuse payment then. And to approve or decline it, this means that I have to be present and cannot just hand over the money to the housemaid and head out to work.

I most certainly do not believe this term is there for Maachla to abuse, but it shows a kind of uncertainty in their item pricing and lack of price update. But for me the customer, how can I trust such a system? If I sense a difference in the bill, I have to manually compare each and every item. This is also related to the lack of an inventory system.

e-List:

The e-List is a quick way for you to write down items you want, quantity, size, and brand. You can leave the size and brand open, go to checkout quickly, and they would try to match your preference.

This I believe is a nice and easy way to finish your shopping, similar to handing over your grocery list for someone to do the shopping for you. I bet you can even specify here small PEPSI can and get it as well! Problem is, you have no clue about the pricing once again! A call before delivery would be good to confirm the final price.

Conclusion:

We believe Maachla.com has got all the hard elements of the equation in place. The store, the physical items, the delivery capacity. What they need is just to tie it stronger together. Have an updated inventory system, even if it’s a nightly update only, that would still be much better than the current situation. Give people the same physical experience by providing what’s already there. Faster and more AJAXed experience is always better as well.

If the problem of varieties is at least solved, and a guarantee of price range, I guess I could rely on this service for at least pre-packaged products. Fruits and vegetables are a different matter I say for now.

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PIFSS.GOV.KW Online Services Review

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:03:59 +0000

Site: PIFSS.GOV.KW

Name: The Public Institution for Social Security

Name (Arabic): المؤسسة العامة للتأمينات الاجتماعية

Type: Government

Brief: PIFSS have started providing it’s online services as part of the e-government project a while ago, giving it’s users access to loads of information about their social security status and numbers, as well as allowing them to submit certain certificate requests.

Review:

Registration:

Sadly, for registration, PIFSS have decided to go with their own online user credentials, thus taking a step away from a unified government identity. Perhaps the reason for this is the slow progress of the unified identity, who knows. To start the registration anyhow, you first click the Electronic services link at the top left of the screen.

From there, click on New User? (مستخدم جديد؟), fill in your civil ID number and click submit. After that, you will have to complete a certain form with some personal information, secret question and such. Once you submit the form, you will have to wait for few days, after which they will notify you of the time to come and collect the password with an email like this:

Sadly, this is an after two weeks kind of period, which is too long just to create the account and deliver a password. Hopefully with time this process will get faster. You can go on the specified date or later, and you collect the password from the main branch, car parking building, Floor # 2. It was quite empty when I went there. You need to go in person and have the Civil ID with you, sign few papers and you’re done.

After that, just open the envelop to get your password and login. First thing I suggest is change your password to something you can remember, rather than rely on the numeral one given to you. If you forget the password, you can reset it online by answering the secret question, no more trips to Kuwait City.

Online Services:

The online service portal design is quite neat, pretty fast to load, and very easy to follow, renders on different browsers and operating systems properly apparently, as I was using Firefox on Mac with no issues. This is the main page with your personal information.

And from the side menu, you can access loads of information and certificate request forms, such as the allowance info, registration periods, retirement salary calculation if applicable, and your current salary and cut amount.

Summary:

PIFSS online service I believe is an ideal of how online services should be. Quite informative, neat and clean design, easy to read and follow, and quite fast as well. Ofcourse, other e-Government services are bound to have more interactive features, like paying the bills and such. For PIFSS, I’m sure there is also a long way to go, but this is quite a good start. My only concern beside the long time for password delivery is how each entity is delivering with it’s own user credentials, which will complicate unifying the user identities later on across all the government. But again, maybe they couldn’t spare to wait for Civil Service Commission to get ready, or maybe the latter was making it too complicated. Who knows.

Go ahead and try it I say. You will get quick access to your info, and be able to support further enhancements in the e-Government.

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Kuwaiter.com for Kuwait Events Review

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:34:31 +0000

Name: Kuwaiter.com

Category: Community / Information

Language: English

Brief: Community driven site for Kuwait upcoming events, offers, and for people to express their wishes by demanding certain events.

Review: Seeing it emerge only less than a year ago, the site right now is covering quite a lot about the upcoming events in Kuwait, with the ability to comment and rate these events. This events list can be really handy for both consumers and business owners to see what’s out there and reach out. Another less populated section gives you the current offers available in the market, and it’s up to the business owners here to really fully utilize it. The neat part I see is the Demand section, which allows you to express your desire for a certain type of events, and then more and more people can share your demand. Business owners can then simply see the trend and desire, to fulfill what people already need. That’s a small market study for FREE.

Should You Sign-Up with Kuwaiter.com?

Kuwaiter.com believes so for the following benefits:

Keeping track and sharing events with friends and community members.
Adding your own events for “free” and promoting events to the entire Kuwaiti community.
Create groups and share similar interests with the community.
Easily export events via calendar widgets or tools.
Send the event to your email, print a copy and/or invite your friends to it.
You will have your own “personal community page” which allows you to see who your friendsare, what events and groups your friends are joining.

Warning About Registration!

My biggest frustration of the site came after I received a spam email from someone saying she found my contact info @ Kuwaiter.com. I was stunned and when I checked my profile, it seems my email used for registration was put on publicly without my consent. I checked their Privacy Policy page to see if I missed something, and no, they’re not supposed to do this.

I went to my profile page and realized my Profile info has been set to Public by default, which doesn’t make any sense. Even if I chose to make it public, usually profile information does not enforce sharing of user’s email account. So if you want to register, definitely make sure you visit the Profile page immediately after sign-up and adjusting the privacy to your likings.

Suggestions:

Preserve user privacy: Simply allow users to opt-in for sharing their email and other profile info publicly. By default, private information should be, umm private!
Tags for Events: If you go right now, you will see loads of events, many of which are for elections. Now you may be interested in Shopping events only for instance, so it would be nice to allow tags to distinguish event types, and help people see what they like. Yes there are categories right now, but they’re not really enforced nor followed, and I don’t see an easy way to filter events out.
RSS Feed for Events: Right now, there is an RSS for the news only, which isn’t really the main content of the site. People would come here for events, and I bet they would like to subscribe for RSS of their favorite events, e.g. Shopping, Electronics or so.

Summary:

With the exception of the Privacy issue, I’m pretty impressed by the amount of content so far put in the site, keeping it always fresh, and would wish to see more extensibility and ease of reach for it.

UPDATE: I’m not sure if this is a coincidence or a response, but I received this email few minutes ago from Kuwaiter.com:

“Dear Kuwaiter.com member,

We hope that our email finds you in good health.

First of all we would like to thank you for registering and hope that you are enjoying Kuwaiter.com and its unique services.

We sadly noticed that some users are misusing Kuwaiter.com to spam user emails. We extend our deepest apologies for this unfortunate incident and assure you that we are in the process of fixing this error so it will not occur again.

Meanwhile, to ensure your privacy kindly switch your Kuwaiter account to the (private) setting instead of the (public).

Kuwaiter.com is open to suggestions as well as criticism. We are more than happy to hear back from you. Since its launch back in February of 2009, we were always aiming to develop to offer only the top quality online community to our users. Your input is highly cherished and will help in aiding our mission so feel free to contact us anytime on info@kuwaiter.com or on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27853434920

Best wishes,

Kuwaiter.com Team”

So personally I’m always happy to see strong actions taken against spamming, but Kuwaiter.com should’ve been more careful about disclosing people’s email in the first place. Public email is an open invitation for spammers. Thanks though for starting to take corrective measures.

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Wazeefa1.com Job Site Review

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:05:41 +0000

Name: Wazeefa1.com

Category: Jobs

Language: English

UPDATE: The site has been noted for being affiliated with spamming user emails, and as a result we strongly advice against sharing any of your personal information with them.

Review: New still growing jobs site for the Arab region, with current 121 jobs in Kuwait, most highest country in the site. Judging on that number, and the type of ads, one could guess it’s a Kuwaiti initiated site. The good thing about this job site is that job seekers and employers alike seem to be able to register and post for FREE, and you don’t need to be registered to see the available job listings and details as some others tend to do. To apply for a job however, yes this needs a registration. Still though, if you’ve got all the job details, including the company name, then you only need to register if you want to apply online. Otherwise just drive your car there and submit your papers.

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Q8Tutors – Find your tutor online

Q8Ba7th — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:30:36 +0000

Name: Q8Tutors.com

Business Type: Education

Languages: Arabic

Launch Date: March, 2009 (Beta)

Brief:
Q8Tutors.com is new idea in Kuwait for private tutors listing, still in Beta stage. The site has a design of it’s simplest form, and a very direct tutor search feature covering all education level from elementary school to Bachelors and Masters. You can filter by tutor gender, subject (which still needs to have more varieties), and educational level.

Tutors can also freely advertise and list their services for FREE and on the fly. People searching will not be able to see the name but only details and contact info.

The site is still fairly new and not fully occupied yet, but with time I guess it’s gonna be a big traffic with our classified ad newspapers full of such paid advertisements that are hard to find and filter. An advantage of having the listings online however would be more information about the tutor, like pricing, and the review of students who hired him/her. That would really give a great value for the student, as it’s one thing to find a tutor, and it’s a completely different thing to find a good tutor. This is what’s missing from the classified ads.

Ofcourse, one could also argue about the ethics of teachers giving private lessons, but that’s up to the single individual I guess.

Snapshot:

Q8eGifts.com Review

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:36:16 +0000

Name: Q8eGifts.com

Business Type: Gifts Shopping

Language: English/Arabic

Launch Date: First seen November, 2008

Brief: Kuwait online gift shopping site offering flower bouquets and chocolate gifts.

Review: Q8eGifts comes with a unique theme of it’s own, and a nice design aimed at showing best offers at the top. The variety and type of products offered so far are not so attractive, while I do notice some slight updates on the gifts collection, they do need a wider range to choose from, and it definitely needs more original or unique content of its own to separate it from the rest, rather than regular chocolates you can find at the grocery nearby you.

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P2BK 2009 even more crowded

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:04:56 +0000

Another year and another P2BK event, an annual event for small-medium entrepreneurs to participate and demonstrate their businesses. The exhibition this year brought in more varieties after it’s been more recognized, and the quality and booth expenses have increased to a good extent as well, showing how eager and enthusiastic contributors were. Their hard efforts however were again over shadowed by an overwhelming crowd of visitors trying to pass back and forth in a human traffic flow inside the tiny corridors between booths. The small area separating the booths made it barely possible for people to move, let alone standing for a moment to know what the booth is all about. If a guy stops, he would basically stop the whole lane behind him. We had to go with the current all the way through. Best thing you can hope to do is grab a brochure while you’re on the go.

Overheating was another problem still existing from last year. Since the room is designed for events, one would only think it’s designed to accommodate all it’s needs as well.

We understand the restriction on space area with the event targeting small-medium businesses, trying to keep it as affordable as possible, but the huge demand, costly booths, and amount of visitors can only justify the expansion. I’m sure sponsors would cover up big part of the event under such big demand, and the other thing is, if space is a problem, last thing one would need is a main stage eating up the remaining area.

Not only did it take a big amount of space, but was a big source of noise as well. My friend was trying to discuss something with an exhibitor but instead just took the business card since we couldn’t hear anything.

Any good impressions left on the way out were also wiped out when some guy at the door raised his hand over my friend’s chest, rudely telling him the exit is the other way. The fact that no door has a sign of Entrance nor Exit shows a bad side of organization, and not taking good care of the qualifications of the people they hire is another thing worse. Have it been someone other than my friend, who is a highly educated, wise and calm person, things would’ve taken a different turn.

In summary, I believe the event is a great idea, there is a big demand for it especially at the boost of online business in Kuwait, however the execution could be made a lot better to give the best outcome for both the visitor, and the exhibitor, as I can only picture my self as an exhibitor loosing all those candidate customers. The environment should be suitable to discuss the business opportunities, it’s not a carnival after all. Also, serious care should be taken with the hiring, what happened to us on the way out was really outrageous.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Personal Growth Map to help you achieve your 2009 resolutions

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:00:10 +0000

With every new year people come up with their own new year resolutions. Targets they want to achieve, and things they want to improve on. A logical question is why does it have to be at the beginning of the year rather than whenever they really feel like it. Two main reasons maybe (besides following the crowd blindly :

1- It would give the person a good time line to measure his progress over the course of next year.
2- New year gives the feeling of a new beginning.

At all rates, I thought of sharing today the new started blog of a friend. Personal Growth Map is not really a typical type of blog that we have in Kuwait, but is rather a blog focused purely towards the personal improvement and development. And in his words, here is what Haider wants to achieve from his site:

To explain what personal development is, so that you can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the subject, and how everything else fits into it
To help you make the best use of the personal development resources you already have, and the information you come across
To propose a way in which personal development material should be presented by other websites, to make them easier for us all to use
To present the Personal Growth Map, which is an approach that I developed for personal development that makes having a balanced life very achievable

The blog has only launched in December 08, but has recently been kept updated regularly on an almost daily basis. Hoping it will you you, me and others stay motivated throughout the year in pursuing our year resolutions.

Tip: Search Kuwaiti sites using Q8Ba7th.com

Wataniya Airlways Site Launches

Q8Ba7th — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:52:04 +0000

Name: Wataniya Airways

Business Type: Travel

Launch Date: December, 2008
* Date we first noted site online. Could be different

Brief: Wataniya Airlines is the second private airlines going into business next February, and they are the first premium service private airlines, as opposed to the low cost Al-Jazeera Airways. Wataniya Airways have 2 planes so far parked at Toulouse, France, and have 2 more coming later. The two airplanes will be starting their back and forth journeys between their country of origin, Kuwait, and the destinations Dubai, Bahrain, and Beirut on the 8th of Feb, 09. Travelers can already book their ticket flights online.

via SOME contrast

Review:

While Wataniya Airways site has all basic features for travelers to book their tickets, it is still behind I say compared to Jazeera Airways and others. The site design is rather pretty simple and looks like a ready made template. Search box date selection could be improved. Rather than having drop down menu for each entry (e.g., day, month, year), the approach of Jazeera Airways showing dates in human readable format is more appealing. Site response time is also occasionally slow

Booking: Once you perform a flight search, a new full screen window opens up with a complete different URL, but within the same theme, to complete the booking process. This is the engine and service that is powering their online booking system, something that Al-Jazeera is also doing. The different however is that Al-Jazeera does it so transparently. No domain change, nor a new window for it. The Wataniya Airways’ new window is so inconvenient, and makes it difficult for the normal user to browse back and forth. It also forbids him from doing multiple flight searches, which he may want to do for comparison purposes. Any new search loads in the same previously opened window. Also, the redirection to a complete different domain (cat.sabresonicweb.com), makes the end user confused. A simple subdomain mapping would be sufficient to overcome this problem, and give much more confidence and credibility to the user.

Another thing is Wataniya site still does not seem to offer seat selection, nor even a preference. At least, I was not able to spot it. Jazeera on the other hand had it since it’s early launch days. Made a pretty positive impression as well.

Pricing: That’s where it all ends isn’t it? So I tried to go through flight search from Kuwait to Dubai from 9th – 14th Feb, 09 for Wataniya Airways, Jazeera, and Kuwait Airways. A first note is, for some reason Wataniya site returns the ticket price in the currency of destination country, e.g AED, rather than the origin. As a Kuwaiti company, it should be either in KD by default, takes the currency of origin, or at least have in USD as a global currency. Not for any reason would I want to know the price in AED when I am traveling from Kuwait, and the least is I should have the option to change to my preferred currency. At the time of writing, there just isn’t!

Now as for prices, keeping in mind Jazeera is a low-cost service, these are the price ranges:

Wataniya Airways: 50 KD – 129 KD (42 classes)
Jazeera Airways: 10 KD – 70 KD (2 classes)
Kuwait Airways: 105 KD – 230 KD (3 classes)

So Jazeera highest exceeds Wataniya lowest fare, and notice how Kuwait Airways, a struggling service, has it’s lowest class fare close to Wataniya highest, and how their highest First class rate is above by 100 KD. While Wataniya uses Airbus A320, and Kuwait Airways uses variety of models, it remains known to many how consumed and old the airplanes Kuwait Airways operates, especially after last time new airplane purchase efforts were turned down. That, in addition to the frequent Wataniya 2 per day flight to Dubai should put Kuwait Airways almost obsolete for such destinations I believe, except when all other airlines are fully booked. Despite the known fact of the competition, we did not see any corrective measures on the Kuwait Airways side as well. Another thing is, Wataniya Airways gives travelers their own Royal Aviation Terminal, and this includes all traveler classes.

Future Destinations:

Cairy, Egypt
Amman, Jordan
Qatar
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Damascus, Syria

Summary: Competition is always good, and Wataniya is opening more seats to the hot short destinations, at a promising better service quality. The aviation terminal is, if as good as it seems, a marvelous idea. Their site still seems to need some work in terms of design, performance, and booking features.

In general, I expect Jazeera to remain the target for most frequent travelers for it’s competitive prices. Luxury and late flight seekers will be the Wataniya ones. I still believe with the different in service type we will see both airways trying to eat up each other’s share though. Kuwait Airways… So far it’s still in it’s long sleep, and I don’t expect it to wake up anytime soon.

More References:

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wataniya_Airways
Jobs: http://www.bayt.com/job/company?xid=807752

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Maachla.com – New Online Grocery in Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:30:29 +0000

Name: Maachla.com

Business Type: Grocery Shopping

Languages: English/Arabic

Launch Date: November, 2008

Brief: Maachla (which means in Arabic grocery items for house) is another online grocery shopping site in Kuwait, like Taw9eel.com, but unlike Taw9eel which operates its own storage area, this one seems to be coordinating with Mishref Co-op.

Review: Being a follower, one would think it has a tough competition to make with Taw9eel, which usually guarantees 1 hour delivery at all times, operating from their own stores according to what they say, rather than dealing with Mishref or any other Co-Op. This gives Taw9eel the lead in delivery time, and better control over the stock items. But it also makes them more limited with item variety, as they can’t keep large stocks of items that wont sell, and also at large extra savings cost. Maachla on the other hand comes up with much greater varieties with lower overhead cost. For example, Taw9eel has only 3 ketchup items of same brand, Heinz, while Maachla comes with over 10 items of different brands.

Price: This is where the credibility of Maachla have failed me. While item prices in general appear to be a lot cheaper than Taw9eel, 300 compared to 500 fils, the prices seem inaccurate and varying for the same product. For example, the below are two Heinz Mayonnaise of different sizes, with the smaller one 300 Fils more expensive.

This is most likely a data entry problem only. The other problem I noticed was price difference between search result page, and product details page:

Search Result Price of 340g is 300 Fils

Product Details page of Heinz ketchup 340g showing price is 450 Fils

So which one is it? This shows hidden bugs in the system and not data entry errors, and for me would keep me away from trying it out in the meantime.

Usability & Interface: Usability I believe is another weakness of the site. Grocery shopping is unlike other type of shoppings. Needs to be fast and easy to search, navigate, and go back and forth. Browsing the site content on Maachla however is rather difficult, as opposed to the AJAX rich interface of Taw9eel with the following shortcomings as I see it:

Main page of the site is almost free of of any item listing, when it should be the kick off point for it.
Clicking on category does not bring that category products, but rather requires another click on the subcategory.
Side menu is taking large part of the screen, when you need to focus on the products them selves most of the time.
Search function does not seem to be working.
Registration is required to add items to the cart, when some stores compete to provide checkout without even registration. Registration upon checkout can be enforced, but not before I even try adding items to the cart. Especially when registration requires all my personal information, mobile number, and home address. A side note also is why does the site use the mobile number as the user name? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me
Thumbnails: The squeezed thumbnails of items really distorts the look of it, makes item less appealing, and misleading as well. There is the gram size ofcourse, but still the look of a pepsi can is much easier than comparing the gram size.

A revisit for the site design and usability I believe is in order.

Express Shop: This could be their answer to the usability of the site. Express Shop is a quick way to write the items you’re looking for, just as in the notes you carry with you along to the grocery store, and search. You will get list of all available items matching yours. That is a neat feature in my opinion, though still does not overcome all the shortcomings.

Delivery and Charge: We were not able to find any information about delivery charges, but the minimum order amount is 2.0 KD, which is pretty fair. They do not specify the areas of delivery however.

Company Info Missing: As an online grocery store, I guess many people would like some information about the company behind this service, and the way they operate. However we did not see any information like this, not an FAQ section or details about refunds and payments either. The only lead is that it’s “Designed by: Mag Web Technologies Pvt Ltd”, and dealing with Mishref co-op.

Enforce of SSL on all pages: For some reason, all site pages are enforced over SSL connection, which ofcourse means all pages are encrypted and take much longer to load. Not even Amazon takes that step. Encrypted pages are checkout and confidential information pages usually.

Conclusion: Overall, I think the market is big enough for new comers, as majority are still not depending on the high quality, yet very expensive service of Taw9eel.com. With little work on the site, and good market reach, I guess this thing could become handy for many.

Tip: Search Kuwaiti sites using Q8Ba7th.com

Fruits & Passion Kuwait

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:51:14 +0000

Name: fruits-passion-kw.com

Business Type: Body Care Shopping Site & Company Profile

Launch Date: October, 2008

Brief: Fruits & Passion is a global brand for body care rituals, fragrances, and home ambiance products. Has a local exclusive dealer with previous physical stores. Now, while some people might have missed them from the market, thinking they are long gone, selling of those products is still easily available online.

Review: Fruits & Passion Kuwait as I see is a nice elegantly designed site, goes along with the type of business they are in, and matches the original Fruits & Passion global design. You can find there more information about the company, products, type of Spa services and others they offer, and you can also subscribe to their newsletter, since I know they very often participate in public and private expos.

For the people so much enthusiastic in such products, a shopping section is also available, and while it may seem like a secondary item in their site, I have tried it personally and they seem to have a pretty flexible and quick delivery methods, and are quite focused at it. They do offer gift baskets as well, which looks good, a bit expensive, and I think could use some extra items from outside their menu. For example, a New Baby basket can have a teddy bear toy, baby photo album or frame. Something to go along with it. Maybe this needs some further legal work on their side, as they represent an international brand, not sure. But it remains a good idea that adds value in my opinion.

They also offer gift vouchers if you want to gift someone, and a purchase of 30 KD or more will entitle you for a 10% discount on all future purchases as a VIP member, as well as some rewarding points.

The experience of shopping is rather convenient, easy to browse, flexibility to choose the taste you want on product page. The Add to Cart could use a bit of highlighting in the top left side to draw customer’s attention item was really added to the cart. Some people might miss it I guess.

Delivery: Delivery for me happened on same day based on my request, not sure how it’s made otherwise, but they seem again pretty flexible and supportive. Delivery charge is 1 KD for orders below 10 KD, so most of the cases delivery will be FREE of charge, unless you’re only in short of a shampoo .

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Kakkuii for game rentals finally launched

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:49:06 +0000

Name: Kakkuii.com

Business Type: Game Rental & Reviews

Launch Date: 5-12-2008

Brief: Kakkuii (Japanese for cool) came finally live after some Coming Soon waiting period becoming the first game rental service in Kuwait, providing customers with privilege of playing multiple games per month for a fixed flat rate. Home delivery is included as well as part of the service.

How It Works: The user starts by registering with the site, selecting his desired package of the three available, based on the number of games he expect to play per month. The user then builds his list of games preferences. Game deliveries start then after 5 pm (later orders are shifted to next day), and the customer gets one game at a time based on his preference list and availability. Payment and registration start on the game delivery date.

Once he’s done playing the game, customer places an order for game exchange, another delivery is scheduled to reclaim the current game, and hand over the new one from his games preference list, given the monthly exchange limits are not exceeded.

Pricing:

Pricing is based on number of games you want to play per month (you get one game at a time), thus you have to estimate the number of games you want to play and finish every month.

So it ranges from 3-8 games per month, for 18-25 KD. Not cheap, yet not bad eh? When you look at local game prices, they are usually 17-18 KD. Ordering one game from outside would usually end up with the same cost, while this site is giving you 3 games for the price of one. Ofcourse however, you have limited time to finish the game, so it’s most suitable for gamers who can finish a game every other day. But what about gamers with a taste (or time) for one game per month? They seem to be missing this segment which is not a bad segment as well. I would be interested in this service, however 3 games per month is outdoing my muscles. Such gamers I bet would like something like 8 KD/month for one game. Perhaps the reason for lack of this offer is the fear of people not turning back in the game until it looses it’s market value.

Delivery & Payment: Delivery seems free upon game exchange or sign-up request, and payment is Cash on Delivery (my favorite for Kuwait).

Affiliate Program: While this service is still coming soon, this is the first site in Kuwait considering it, and if implemented properly could kill competition and hire more forces and words of mouth around the service, separating it from any future threat.

Review: I’ve personally been watching this site for quite some time waiting for it’s launch, and the guys seem to have worked out a great deal on the brand, not to mention the Japanese style anime comic they’re using to promote their service.

As for the service of game rental in Kuwait, I think it’s excellent. Kuwaities were used to copies for 2 KD before, playing all games they want. Price was never an issue. Now, things are different. And it’s either money, or number of games that is being sacrificed. This is the kind of service that is really filling up a need and not creating one. The price I think has also been thought of very cleverly, while I think it’s more fair to bring it down a bit. 18 KD is the price you will pay anyway for any new game you want. So why not as well get few extras for the same price? Selling used games on the other hand would sell for 10 KD if you’re lucky. Another 8 KD for a new game, and that’s 16 KD for playing two games at your own pace. For 3 games, it’s gonna cost you a bet more. Or playing 3 instead in one month for flat rate. It all depends on the gamer nature. Though I still think a lower price is possible while still maintaining good profit margin. I normally don’t get over the game fully in less than a month, so the rental option is not always best for me I guess. Another thing I hate about this model of rental is that it creates a sense of commitment to gaming, which could come at the expense of other higher priority stuff in your life. Just doesn’t feel so healthy. I have many games still waiting to be opened. No rush.

The limitation of one game at a time is not so convenient I guess. A hardcore gamer needs more than one game in hand at a time. The other big draw back of the service is that, your list of games is only a preference, and there are no guarantees. High demand on a game could mean you won’t get it on release date and have to wait until it becomes available. That is something hardcore gamers don’t bet on.

There is also the suitability of this rental service. While it is good in general, it may not be feasible for game collectors, or for people who want to own certain games. For example I would like to keep my copy of Assassin’s Creed. Also, RPG and online games have usually longer life period than a month, and that would mean you paying 36 KD for 2 months game rental. Ain’t cheap is it? An alternative solution might be in order for such gaming experiences.

As for the company behind this service, it would seem this is all from individual efforts, as I can tell from the contact page listing mobile number only. If that is the case, then the site is running on low cost, however with a bit less credibility as well. I should note though, I got impressed several times in the past by the exceedingly higher quality of service offered by individuals over corporates.

Final Words: We are happy to see new services and innovations been brought into the market, and we see a great value for this service if executed properly. The critical factor here is the quality of the service.

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Kuwait International Fair & Books Exhibition

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:14:43 +0000

Kuwait International Fair Co., established in 1971, is the oldest and I think the only exhibition company holding it’s own grounds, occupying huge space land. Ever since then however, the development rate of this exhibition is really in the micro-level and can barely be seen.

As I was planning to go to the 33rd Books Exhibition, being it Friday I wanted to make sure the exhibition is open. Going to their amaturish site, the Working hours section had only the main office working hours. What about the exhibition working hours? They didn’t just forget it. They knew it’s different, and they even say it:

OK, so where do we find the exhibition opening hours? In the Events Calendar? The worst exhibition event calendar I’ve seen. All it has is the name, dates, and halls of the exhibition. After 33 years of arranging this exhibition, don’t you have any more information to give? Such information as:

Working hours
# Participants
Categories of books visitor could find
Map of the area and categories inside it
Stats about previous exhibitions, is it growing larger, and at what rate. How many people usually attend the exhibition? Such things are more critical to you, KIF, and the exhibitors than the customer how could you miss it?
Specific page per exhibition is definitely needed. Some detailed specific information about each exhibition. Give value, give credit, grab attention. Only few exhibitions have links with very shallow information
No galleries and past events information

Wanna laugh more? See the Halls Availability. If you can travel back in time, hopefully you can find empty halls back in 2006 or 7.

Eventually, we had to call relatives to find out they don’t open Friday morning. Going in the afternoon, at little before 4 PM, there was literally no note about when are the opening hours at the door. I had to ask the snacks seller outside who told me it opens at 4:30. To our surprise, the doors opened at 4 PM and people started going in. Going inside, there were so many booths without sellers, so I could basically take all I want and leave. Their argument was, opening hours are supposedly 4:30 PM. Good, then don’t open before it, and deliver the message clearly so that people don’t line up early ahead. And even after 4:30 PM, there were still booths without sellers, and even worse, some new comer newspapers had reserved the booth but could not afford to have a person standing there, so all there is was an empty table, or sometimes this was lacking also. You could see pile of newspapers lying on the floor, and that was all of it.

Such things are not bad for the exhibitor only, but is bad for the overall image of the exhibition and would drive people away from it. Good control and penalty should be imposed on exhibitors. You take the place, you use it. Empty space looks really bad and gives bad impression about the overall quality, and usefulness of the expo.

The variety of books I guess were large, but I really did not have enough time to look around (thanks to my kid!), however the best part for me was the arts section showing some really talented Kuwaiti drawings.

I will try to post the few snapshots I took when I figure why my HTC won’t beam, sync, or fails to upload to any image site I visit.

FINAL NOTE: The Arabic Books Exhibition is supposed to be a face of Kuwait, and so is the Kuwait International Fair Co. Yet, it is the only exhibition where I don’t see any people trying to run stats, get reviews, push forward and improve. It’s basically the same year after year. Thanks only yo those exhibitors who can tolerate it, and bring new stuff to it. I was personally really disappointed and shocked when I saw it. I don’t usually go there very often, and before, I did not think of how bad those expos are, how the quality and focus are completely behind. This year however, I could not take it.

Really wish to see some serious revamp in this huge garbaged area. Supposed to be modernized, but it’s all dirty and unwisely used.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Masahati.com Online Real Estate Coming Soon

Q8Ba7th — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:22:27 +0000

Masahati.com is a new site, still not open to the public. In their words:

“Masahati.com is the most up-to-date property listings for homes, apartments, offices, commercial spaces, and more!
Rent, lease, buy, and sell property easily and effortlessly online. Your property is just a click away!”

Kuwait has already many real estate classified sites, but none is comprehensive enough yet, and what the site developed by BLUGREY seems to be promising is quite a challenge I say. If we follow their words by heart, they are going to provide online service for selling and leasing property, and that does not mean advertising it only. Ofcourse there is the paper work you can’t avoid eventually, but are they providing here a place where you can reserve the property, make some type of initial payment or something like that?

Not clear now. All you can do is register to be notified of launch date, but the site does look promising from far away.

Tip: Search Kuwaiti sites using Q8Ba7th.com

Open your virtual Kuwait store in minutes with Dikani.com

Q8Ba7th — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:35:23 +0000

Name: Dikani.com

Launch Date: Nov, 2008

Languages: English/Arabic

Brief: Dikani.com is like a virtual Kuwait mall for sellers to open their virtual store through it and start selling instantly. Each seller gets his own subdomain on the site, e.g. shop.dikani.com, and each seller pays monthly fees for Dikani based on number of items advertised.

Review: The implementation of Dikani is unique in Kuwait, and is one of the few software as a service providers here now as well. I’ve heard quite several people sharing a thought for such an idea in Kuwait, but this one is the first to see the light. I have to say I was personally not convinced the idea in this way would would be a success, but it seems with the excessive online advertisement campaign by Dikani, things are starting to get some attention.

Right now, there is a total of 5 stores and around 70 items. Not much compared to the size of advertisement it’s making, but it’s still a start, and with a couple of success stories, I can see more people joining in. A point also to make is, for some reason most advertisement clicks take to 404 page rather than Dikani main page, so this must be affecting their conversion.

The target seller I think is small to medium. Small shops who are looking for quick ways to reach online audience. But I think people with highest interest will be the freelancers who normally sell their stuff at home or through friend links. Such a trend is quite popular in Kuwait, and this might be a good chance for them.

The down side of this service however is the cost. Not anywhere else on the net have I seen such an expensive service, and I’m not talking about double the price only here. 45 KD for 20 items only as the minimum offer, and it goes up to 615 KD for 1000 items! The one month free startup is I think what’s keeping stores now open, but with this price it means any seller will only join if he can guarantee minimum of 100 KD income, in which case he can easily hire someone to develop him his own custom unique site and cut down the cost. 45 KD by it self I think is way too expensive, and to limit this price to 20 items only is another bad thing. We all know for that price you can buy a TB of storage. The cost includes service fees as well alright, but still I believe the cost is not justifiable. Compare this to Shopify, which allows 10 items for FREE, and 100 items for $24/month. This includes various customization and extra features that seems to be missing from Dikani.com. If there is one thing that will stand in the face of this service, I believe it would be the cost.

Pros:

For sellers, quick and easy way to online sales
Sellers will get FREE exposure among other stores on Dikani without having to make any advertisements, just as you would get FREE customers inside a real mall.
Customers can shop multiple stores at the same time, and checkout only once.
Freelance sellers without physical locations can utilize this to reach wider audience

Cons:

Cost: Cost of the service is pretty high, and to be cost-effective for the seller, the customer may end up paying for extra profit margin on the items.
Delivery: It’s really not clear how delivery is made. Some stores mention delivery, while others don’t. If they don’t mention the delivery, then what does that mean, and how can I get my item then? Do I have to drive there and get it? Doesn’t sound like online shopping then. Also, on my test checkout from multiple stores, all I got was a message that I will be contacted by the seller soon. I personally hate online shopping that ends up with phone calls, simply because it’s not 100% online and it’s not convenient. If I shop from 5 stores, I will get minimum of 5 calls, and I have no clue about the delivery time. Personally, I didn’t feel comfortable with it.
Upon checkout, i did not receive any email confirmation for my order, which is really what I would rely on for future reference.
Lack of customization: Without trying a seller account ofcourse, from the outside it seems to be lacking customization features per seller, which would allow them for more personalization.
Support & Credibility: Most stores, or perhaps all of them, do not offer any refund or exchange policy. Many of them also are not real stores, and they are not people you know either. Those things would make me think twice and hesitate before buying from any of them. There are some real physical furniture stores however it seems joining the service.

Related Links:

Andra & my Backbone Review
Fonzation

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

UElection.com Kuwait University Election Live Stats

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:17:50 +0000

UElection.com started as an individual effort by Mohammad Al-Meer, to collect and display the results of Kuwait University elections in both tabular and graphical format. Few years after, The Dean of Student Affairs arranged with him to make it the official university elections website, and now, you can get live update on the election results during vote counts.

This year also, the results started showing up on the big screens in some colleges, such as the college of Business & Administration.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

Q8-Health.com – Kuwait Medical Directory

Q8Ba7th — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:38:45 +0000

UPDATE: Site has been taken down and domain is parked now.

Q8-Health.com is a new Kuwait medical directory, and while it does not implement the latest technologies, it does provide through a very simple site design the required information. The site lists information for the following:

Public and private clinics and hospitals: The private hospital list was short and could use a bit of update
Private Doctors and Specialist numbers, categorized by major. This is helpful I no longer need to dig into the newspaper
Gym clubs: As part of the body health
Pharmacies: Would be good (though difficult to implement) to list working hours and shifts of those pharmacies. Also, if it can go down to specify the area, as it’s tedious to call one by one to question their location.
Dental Clinics: WOW… See how long the list goes. Dental must be profitable business
Regular and blood specific Diet programs: Better presentation of the information could be made here, and a reference to the source of those information would give more credibility.

The site is not so wide and big, but the information could come in handy when you need it. Hope to see it being updated regularly.

UPDATE: A friend of mine drew my attention to the fact there may be mistakes in the contact list. For example, he noted Dr. Iyad and Asfor are for Bateniya and not Sukari. He may have an old phonebook information unfortunately. So take care when using the site if you want to.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

iPhone Converter

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:35:56 +0000

Our geeky Apple fanboy Bojacob wrote up a converter for the iPhone. Seems pretty neat I want to try it .

Check it out.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

LovelyThings.biz Gift Store Review

Q8Ba7th — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:24:30 +0000

Name: LovelyThings.biz

Brief: LovelyThings.biz is another online virtual gift store in Kuwait that seems to operate from home since 2004, providing their services of gift assembly for the requested occasion. They offer a variety of gift baskets for your occasion, such as Baby, Birthday, Children, Eid, Father’s Day (They remember us!), Girgean and others. According to them, most gift items come from the US and UK. Thus it seems to take 3 days before your basket is ready, or an additional small extra fee for short time notices.

How To Order: While this may not be the most technological advanced solution, it may be the best for it’s type of business in Kuwait. You basically select the basket you like, do some custom changes if you like, write it down and email it to them, or add it to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout. Email picture of your basket is sent once it’s ready. If you like it, you get it delivered to you, and do cash on delivery payment. They seem flexible that you can pay in a different location, or do an NBK bank transfer, and while your order is in process, they do have a tracking page. Not sure how it looks though.

Cost: It’s hard to judge on the basket price without having good knowledge about per item price. However judging on what I see, and using my assumptions, I would say the baskets are a bit over priced. You are paying the extra charge for the service of getting it done and delivered to you. 20 KD minimum charge for FREE delivery.

Design: Site has a pretty humble design, quick, straight to the point. I would suggest some revision to the text style and color, which right now is a bit difficult to read.

Samples:

Our Pick: While browsing through the samples, we were speechless when we saw this one!

Diaper Cakes!

Suggestions:

Site design gets a little review. As mentioned before, revision of font style and coloring. Some layout improvements are possible I guess, though I my self am not the expert in design.
Contact Info: It is always more professional to give contact form rather than giving email address or mobile number. If it is required, a better way of presentation I think would make it also look more professional. They seem to have one actually!
Cost: If possible, a lower price might attract more customers. (As a matter of fact, this is always the case
Theme and special featuring: It’s quite nice to see a great variety of categories from LovelyThings. However, without good promotion for it, it will not fly as good. Right now we are in Ramadan, and LovelyThings offer Eid and Girgean baskets. However you don’t see any special featuring of those baskets anywhere in the site, when it’s the best time of the year for such unique offerings. People are always looking for such things. Featuring those baskets would draw people’s attention. Changing site theme if possible to Ramadan one, while a bit costly in time and money, would make people spend more time on the site, searching for what they these days.
Baskets: Some baskets we believe can be improved. Our two examples are Ramadan and Eid, which are supposed to have local touch. I have seen so many head turning baskets for those occasions, but not here. Hope we can get some of those, I believe they can be very helpful.

If you were a customer of this store before, please do share your experience with us. As we haven’t.

Tip: Q8Ba7th.com – The Search Site For Kuwait

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