Jun. 15, 2009 (WAM) -- The website of the UAE National Media Council, UAE Interact (www.uaeinteract.com) has achieved top position on Microsoft’s new search engine, ‘BING’, when searching for both ‘UAE’ and ‘United Arab Emirates’. This is a switch in position with Wikipedia which is generally in pole position on Google, followed by UAE Interact. Top ratings on both these most popular search engines re-emphasizes the role that the NMC’s long established website is playing in disseminating information on the UAE. Drawing its content from a wide variety of sources, UAE Interact is updated daily in English and Arabic and four times a week in nine other languages, making it by far the most cosmopolitan website on any Arabian country and a key source of reliable information to many visitors across the globe. Effective means to search and find relevant data on the Internet is crucial to many aspects of our daily lives, from social networking to education, business and politics.

Microsoft’s release of BING in the first week of June caused quite a stir among Internet experts and specialized companies that provide optimization of websites to enhance their ratings. "We have never used tricks to increase the ratings on UAE INTERACT", stated a spokesman for the site. "Our growth has been organic and is based on a very strong user base among institutions, companies and individuals who relay on keeping up to date with events in the UAE". Microsoft is repositioning BING as a ‘decision engine’, with a goal "to provide customers with intelligent search tools to help them simplify tasks and make more informed decisions", according to a Microsoft spokesperson. It’s ‘decision engine’ focuses on four key vertical areas: i.e. (1) making a purchase decision, (2) planning a trip, (3) researching a health condition or (4) finding a local business.

"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," Ballmer said in a statement. "When we set out to build BING, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. BING is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions." UAE Interact can be located by entering ‘UAE’ or ‘United Arab Emirates’ on the BING site (www.bing.com) or by going straight to www.uaeinteract.com.