(With inputs by Abhishek Kapoor)
Muslims believe in One, Unique, Incomparable God, Allah. It is the auspicious month of Ramzan Id where families fast throughout the day and feast only after night prayers, while the family get-together is the major highlight of their festival. The religious sentiments of millions of Muslim communities have been safeguarded with their belief in the Holy Quran which was revealed in this month. Their objective of fasting is a way of experiencing hunger and developing compassion for the less fortunate, and learn to be thankful and appreciate all of the God’s rewards. In a way, each religion has its own beauty and is preserved despite the far-flung penetration of newer technologies.
We have come across many search engines; global, local, regional, countrywide, content specific and language specific. With Imhalal.com we see the first religious search engine! According to Islam the content on internet can be classified into “halal” and “haram”. The search engine filters out the content that is considered forbidden or “haram” showing a negative search result. The website is positioned at religious Muslims all around the world who wish to surf the net without bumping into explicit content.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sLwHwLfvr4
Not only does it blocks the “haram” content but also grades the search term on the scale of 1 to 3. For e.g. when i searched “sex” it says, “Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 2 out of 3. This means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com could be haram!”
Though at first two levels it still allows the users to access the content through a tab “If you still think the results will be clean click me!” but not at the “haram” level 3.
Surely this is a unique service and would help to bring more religious Muslims to the net. So far so good the idea is novel and benefitting but what if they start blocking websites on more political reasons than religious?
The company behind this Amsterdam-based AZS Media Group aims to become the homepage in all Muslim households. They are also planning to expand their product line by providing Islamic widgets. The site, launched earlier this month, claims to have received more than 400,000 unique visitors so far. The CEO admitted he and his colleagues had to list down all illicit content to compile the “haram” list.
A quick idea for entrepreneurs – Why not extend this safe search engines for children? I am sure parents won’t mind an adult free search engine for their kids.
Great idea. Check out http://www.kidrex.org. They are a safe search for kids.