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Getting Organized Top Arab Resolution According to Yahoo! Maktoob Research

Dubai, UAE, January 12, 2011: As life resumes to its normal pace after the holiday season, getting organized is the number one resolution for people in the Arab world according to a new survey from Yahoo! Maktoob Research. Interestingly, long-time pledges such as losing weight and quitting smoking did not even make it among the Top Five, with 2011 resolutions instead focusing on personal time management and the desire to have fun.

The online survey, which polled 2,900 people from across the region, saw being better organized as the top priority for a whopping 18% of regional respondents, with saving more money and getting out of debt both garnering 10% of the vote. Not forgetting to stay amused, nearly 15% of voters said that they were going to try to enjoy life more as their New Year resolution, followed by a desire to learn something new with 11% of the vote.

Quitting smoking and shedding kilos were the number one and two resolutions in other Yahoo! -sponsored polls in places like the United States, but came to a lowly 11^th and 7^th place respectively among respondents to the pan-Arab survey.

While opinions are varied, one of the most surprising results was that the respondents' answers were generally uniform across age groups, genders and countries. Of the results that did stick out, a notably higher percentage of those in Morocco and Egypt wanted to be better organized, with a larger proportion of respondents in Iraq and Libya not making any New Year resolution.

"Having dedicated research to understand regional attitudes and preferences is always interesting. It also gives us very relevant information for our readers that fits within Yahoo! Maktoob 's aim to provide millions of internet users in the Arab world with personally relevant content, making Yahoo! Maktoob the center of their online lives by connecting them to the people and things that matter to them," said Tamara Deprez, Head of Yahoo! Maktoob Research.

A host of related opinion polls and surveys can be found through the Yahoo! Maktoob research community Arab Eye (www.arab-eye.com), accessible online through the new Yahoo! Maktoob homepage for the Middle East (maktoob.yahoo.com) presented in both English and Arabic.

Below are the detailed results of the survey ranked in order of most popular:

Get organized - 18%

Enjoy life more - 15%

Learn something new - 11%

Save more money - 10%

Get out of debt - 10%

I do not have a resolution - 6%

Help others - 5%

Lose weight - 4%

Spend more time with family & friends - 4%

Other - 4%

Travel more often - 3%

Get into a habit of being fit - 3%

Quit smoking - 2%

The online survey was carried out from December 19 - 31 of 2010 among 2,900 residents of GCC, Levant and North Africa countries. Questionnaires were distributed through Arab Eye, the Yahoo! Maktoob Research community, with email invitations in both Arabic and English languages and panel members in receipt of the invitation were selected at random.

-Ends-

About Yahoo! Maktoob Research:
Launched in September 2006, Yahoo! Maktoob Research combines the region's largest online consumer panel in the Middle East and North Africa with the latest in international online research standards, to provide marketing professionals with better insights on consumer opinions, needs and expectations. Yahoo! Maktoob Research guarantees delivery of high-quality, super-fast quantitative research projects at highly competitive rates. Yahoo! Maktoob Research can target its panel members by demographics, such as age, gender and occupation among others, which makes it possible to target specific areas, a survey targeted at students for example. Key behavioral patterns are available too. Yahoo! Maktoob Research not only provides full project support to its clients via survey programming, translations and sampling, but also a complete research package, including consultancy. For more information, log on to: www.maktoob-research.com.

About Yahoo! Middle East
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://maktoob.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

For more information, please contact:
Carine Sader
Ogilvy Public Relations
E: carine.sader@ogilvy.com
T: +971 4 3050259

© Press Release 2011