Ever since Google launched Maps with Navigation in beta in the Middle East (in Egypt, the UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, and Algeria, as Q8Gizmo points out), we got curious about Google's new developments in the Arab World. 

We recently hosted a Hangout on Air with Ammar Ibrahim (@ammaribrahim, +Ammar Ibrahim), Google's product manager for the Middle East and North Africa, and fired questions at him about beta navigation for Maps, why it's revolutionary in this part of the world, how Google calculates traffic, when it plans on rolling some of these features out to the rest of the Arab World, and which apps they hope to update with Google voice in Arabic.

We also touched up the recent removal of the Google Maps app from the iPhone, and whether Google would be interested in acquiring startups in the Arab World- see what Ammar has to say about it below.