It’s good news for the Arab digital world .Google has made a series of announcements to make its products more helpful to the Arab world. The announcements are new features on Google Search, the launch of Google Assistant in 15 new countries, a new safety feature on Maps, and a $1m grant to scale digital skills programmes next year.

“Every day, people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) turn to Google for help, to get things done and to learn new things,” said Lino Cattaruzzi, Managing Director for Google in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan over a statement Over the years, Google improved how their products work in Arabic, whether that was on Search, Assistant, Maps, or YouTube, Cattaruzzi mentioned, noting that “we are committed to making our products more helpful to people in the Middle East and North Africa, and to scale our digital skills programme to open opportunities for more people.”

 In 2018, Google launched an Arabic digital skills programme, “Maharat min Google,” which has reached more than 500,000 young people, women, and underprivileged students in the MENA region.

A 2019 research by Public First research company estimates that 89% of people in the UAE and Saudi Arabia use Search once a month to learn a new skill, and 80% of online Egyptians use Google Search because it provides new information not available by other means.

 Google's gives this support for the digital assistant to more Arabic speaking countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Mauritania. Google already supports Arabic in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, bringing the total count to 17 countries.

The Google has also extended its feature of Maps app for the Middle East and North Africa regional users. This feature is already there in Egypt, with Algeria and Tunisia next on the list.