AMMAN — TAGpedia, an online encyclopaedia conceived with the aim of increasing the amount of Arabic content on the web, is scheduled to launch in December with about 500,000 articles in Arabic.

The Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation (TAG-Org), which is producing the encyclopaedia, has already compiled 400,000 items from across the Arab world on a variety of sciences and other topics, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, TAG-Org. chairman and CEO, said in an e-mail to The Jordan Times earlier this week.

“The target is to have the largest databank of Arab content ever,” he said.

Currently, only 2 per cent of all web content is in Arabic, although Arabic speakers account for 5 per cent of global Internet users, according to Google. 

In the Middle East, there are an estimated 78.62 million Internet users, a number that grew by 2,293 per cent between 2000 and 2011, according to www.internetworldstats.com.

About 65 per cent of Arabs using the Internet surf the web in Arabic and look for Arabic content.

The encyclopaedia will be similar in format to Wikipedia, although users will not be able to edit it, and will feature content about Arabic and Islamic culture in addition to science, according to TAG-Org. 

The oganisation is currently working on reviewing the content already collected and gathering more content for the encyclopaedia before it launches later this year, Abu-Ghazaleh said in the e-mail.