Business 24|7 reports that for the third consecutive year, Google held a day-long interactive event with advertising agencies and clients in Dubai. The agency day revealed that out of the 337million people in MENA there are only 56 million internet users who search in Arabic, equivalent to 17 per cent. Google has also revealed that banner ads still accounted for the majority of online ad formats.

Announcing its 2009 report at the beginning of this year, the Google Zeitgeist UAE-specific report showed that YouTube.com was the most popular site in 2009, followed by Facebook.
 

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Taking place from 18 to 20 October, the 2009 edition of SIM aims "to be an effective and inclusive platform for marketing and communications professionals to address benefits, challenges and solutions for the new media revolution, and how to remain ahead of the curve with a complete PR strategy."

Signage, Imaging and Media Exhibition and Conference presents Digital Signage Forum, Google AdWorks Workshop, Outdoor Advertising Forum and Digital Printing Forum, bringing together key sectors and players from the region's marketing and communications industry. 

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Business 24|7 reports that Google search advertising has seen major growth in the Arab World, despite reports of search ads declining worldwide, according to Husni Khuffash, country Business Manager at Google.

Khuffash also added that Google revenues were only derived from search ads. The search engine induced profit in the Middle East, only to bear witness to a growing search ad trend.

The new Arabic language services launched by Google last week, including Google Ejabat, are also expected to attract more advertising in the regional market, said online observers. However, Google said it would not be able to reveal any projections, and would have to wait for a few weeks before starting to assess the responses to the debut and the future potential.

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