14 DAY TRIAL // Continuing their efforts to meet the needs of users worldwide, Google search results have recently been optimized by the integration of Islamic prayer times.
Muslims are in the habit of praying 5 times a day depending on the position of the sun in the sky, therefore these times change throughout a year in accordance with the modifications in a day’s duration.
In a post on Google Arabia blog, the development team announces this new feature as well as the way it can fully exploited.
In other words, users all over the world will be able to perform a simple Google search whenever they want to find out the exact times for their prayers.
In addition to this, Google will also display the location where the prayer is conducted, so that users can choose the one they like best.
While this information will not be displayed separately from the regular search results, it will still be highlighted as shown in the screenshot attached at the bottom of the article.
The technology behind the new feature can theoretically be used “by religious organizations from any faith,” but practically it is mainly relevant for those who abide by the “Islamic prayer traditions.”
Nonetheless, this does not imply that this Rich Snippet-based technology can only be employed for religious purposes.
As already explained on the aforementioned blog post, it can power “improved search results for other kinds of information like events, profiles, recipes, reviews, products and more.”
Since it is currently being developed and improved, this newly-added feature will only be noticed by those performing Arabic or English searches.
Furthermore, even some of those relying on the English edition of Google Search will still encounter issues when viewing Islamic prayer times in their results.
The initiative remains praiseworthy regardless of its current development status, and users all over the world are encourage to offer feedback that would lead to an accurate and smooth displaying of the Islamic prayer times.
