I wondered how the Arab world uses the internet and wanted to spot interesting facts. I collected and analyzed the data from the Alexa page rankings. I calculated the rankings giving more weight to websites that were ranked higher more often.

The Data

* Data was current as of July 22, 2008.

Interesting Facts

• All 18 countries have Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live, & MSN in their Top 10
• Google is #1 in 14 countries (7 of them are localized)
• Yahoo is #1 in 3 countries
• Facebook is #1 in Lebanon
• Google France is in the Top 4 for Algeria, Morocco, & Tunisia
• Facebook is not in the Top 10 for Algeria, Libya, Oman, Syria, & Yemen
• YouTube is not in the Top 10 for Tunisia
• kooora.com is in the Top 10 for 7 countries
• Wikipedia is only in the Top 10 for Lebanon
• Google is localized for 8 Arab Countries
• Lebanon is the only country that has political websites in the Top 10

The Rankings

1. Google*
2. Yahoo!
3. Windows Live
4. YouTube
5. MSN
6. Facebook
7. Maktoob
8. Rapidshare
9. kooora.com
10. PerfSpot

* Includes localized Google websites