Qype - Live and tell

One of the questions we get asked a lot here at Qype is ‘how can I integrate my Qype reviews into my personal blog’?

People spend so much time and thought crafting a great review that they want as many people as possible to see it, but having to copy and paste chunks of text into your blogging tool every time you write another review can get tedious very quickly.

So to help you spread the word about your city we’ve added a nifty bit of code which allows you to export your Qype review to a whole host of places with just a click of a button.

Setting it up is a piece of cake: Make sure you’re signed into Qype and navigate your way to your Settings page (under My Qype). Once you’re there you’ll find another an option to Configure Blogs, this is the page where you add the blogs or social networking sites you want to post your reviews to.

If you have a Twitter account, or use Tumblr, or have a blog on Wordpress then all you need is the URL of your homepage and your login details and you’re away.

Once you’ve added your blogs (and you can add as many as you like) then take a look at any of your reviews and, if everything’s working properly then you’ll see a new link at the bottom of the review which reads Post to blog. Just click that and, hey presto, you’re broadcasting to the world.

We hope you like the new tool. Make sure you let us know how you get on with it and send us links to your blogs, we always love to see Qype in action out there in the wild!

Qype attended the inaugural London Bloggers Meetup earlier this week and spent a fantastic few hours chatting to the cream of the capital’s blogging community.

We have to say thanks to Andy Bargery, the man behind the brilliant and endlessly informative Cheap Eats in London, for organising the whole evening; and we should also say a big Qype hello to all the bloggers we met up with, including Kay, Gemma, Stuart, and the rest of the Shiny Media massive (always the last to leave!); Keith, the property guru behind Housing Panic who scared us with his tales of market crashes; Peter Marshall of the exhaustive My London Diary; Tim from the gloriously named Plummet Onions; and Mirona of Cheezy Cheeky.

The gathering was held at the strangely named Camel and Artichoke pub in Waterloo. Click here to read our Qype review.

If you’re in London and you fancy attending the next Bloggers Meetup on December 18th get yourself over to their sign-up page and put your name down. And, in the meantime make sure you keep your eyes peeled for some Qype events and gatherings which will be happening in the next few months.

UPDATE: We’re up to 200 fans now! Thanks, you rock!

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone who signed up to become a fan of Qype on our brand new Facebook page yesterday.

We got a fantastic response, and passed the 100 friends mark in no time at all, which makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So thanks a lot Qypers!

If you haven’t become a fan of Qype make sure you pay a visit to our page and join our growing fanbase of dedicated Qype-aholics, and we’ll enter your name to win a months worth of free travel in London (the city with the most expensive public transport in the world!).

And for all of you who’ve joined us already, keep an eye out for loads of cool stuff in the near future, including exclusive events, more competitions and some terrifying insights into the goings on here at Qype HQ!

:)

Just like your friends, your grandparents and (in some cases) your pets, Qype now has its very own Facebook page and to celebrate we’re running a little competition.

If you sign up to be a ‘fan’ of Qype (by clicking the link in the top right-hand corner of this page) then not only can you virtually mingle with other Qypers from all around the globe and keep bang up-to-date with what we’re doing here at Qype HQ, but we’ll also enter you into a draw to win a free month of London travel.

After all, we’re very aware of the fact that London’s public transport system is the most expensive in the world, so we thought the very least we could do is offer you the chance to save a few pennies around Christmas time.

So head on over to our page to say hello and become a Qype fanboy or fangirl and, who knows, Santa might be bringing you a little something extra come December 25th!

We’re always on the lookout for new, fun stuff to do in our city, so when we heard about Secret Cinema, a series of events happening around the country that are aiming “to put the mystery and excitement back into cinema”, we thought we’d better let you guys know about it too.

Brought to you by the people behind Future Shorts, these secret monthly screenings are going to be held at individually themed locations around the country and will include surprise rescores, special guests and live installations.

To get involved you have to sign up to the website and then you’ll get an email on the morning of the event to let you know where the screening is (very ‘old school rave’ huh?) and you’ll also get a clue as to what film will actually be showing.

And don’t assume that the venue will be your local cinema, apparently the location could be anything from a derelict theatre, to a park or even a rooftop, which is great because, as you know we’re pretty keen about discovering new places to visit here at Qype.

The opening event is in London on December 16th so make sure you get signed up now if you’re in the capital (we’ll be there, so let us know if you’re going). After that you should look out for events in Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast.

OK - so I’ve been a little bit slack on getting our iPhone version of Qype mobile out of the door. But, after months of blood, sweat and tears, we took the plunge… and… well - check it out for yourselves.

Unfortunately, our illustrious CEO Stephan won’t be checking it out himself since he managed to brick his iPhone only days after I unlocked it for him. Development is now weeks behind while the team comes together to fix it.

You might not think it, but working for Qype can be a dangerous business. No really, seeking out new and interesting ways to experience your city can lead you into some pretty hairy situations, like hanging off the the back of a tuk-tuk as it speeds its way through central London for instance.

You see, this week sees the release of the new Wes Anderson movie The Darjeeling Limited, and to promote the film a fleet of tuk-tuks have been unleashed on London.

Starting from today (Wednesday 21st) if you happen to see one of these tuk-tuks buzzing along the streets of London you can hail it down and hitch a ride completely free of charge (within reason of course, anywhere out of Zone 1 might be pushing your luck). The tuk-tuks will be around every day until Saturday 24th from around 9 in the morning through until 6 at night, and our Qype spies tell us that you’re more likely to catch one if you’re in the West End.

Yesterday evening the Qype team was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the tuk-tuk experience and we had a great time, traveling from Oxford Circus down to Victoria in no time at all, and (contrary to our earlier melodramatics) we actually felt quite safe in the cosy, covered backseat.

In fact we felt so secure that we even dared to use one hand to shoot a bit of video as we made the trip. So here it is, Oxford Circus to Victoria in under two minutes:


So keep your eyes out over the next few days and you might be able to hitch yourself a lift in a tuk-tuk. If you do, come back and tell us how you found it.

P.S. If you’re wondering what the music in the video is, it’s ‘Typewriter Tip, Tip Tip’ by Shankar Jaikishan from The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack. And if you fancy hiring a tuk-tuk yourself take a look at tukshop.

During the past couple of months, we have had a couple of great additions to our team, some still confidential. This one is public, as of today:

Stéphanie Delestre (37) joins Qype, the leading European local review website, as Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Stéphanie joins from Eurosport, where she was Head of Internet and New media, managing a team of more 100 people across eight countries.

The appointment of Stéphanie is a great step forward for Qype. Qype has grown at an exceptional rate in 2007 and we expect the growth in 2008 to be even more impressive with her help. Stephanie is very experienced in multi-lingual and multi-local enterprises.

Qype is now the largest local review website in Europe, with more than 1.5 Million unique visitors in October. Qype currently employs 20 people and is, in it’s category, by far the largest site in Germany and already the fastest growing site in the UK. Qype will launch in France later this year.

Qype’s management team is consists now of Stephan Uhrenbacher (CEO, German), Stéphanie Delestre (COO, French) Andrew Hunter (Head of Marketing, English), Phil Chambers (CTO, English) and Dietrich Wedegärtner (Sales, German).

With this team, we feel confident that we can offer the Qype service with the same success in key European markets as initially in Germany.

It’s that time of year again: the decorations are going up, there’s a frost on the ground, and the Ferrero Rocher adverts are back on the telly. Yes, it’s Christmas!

One of our favourite things about the festive season is the opportunity to go ice skating. Weird as it may sound, the opportunity to strap some very sharp blades to our feet and try to navigate a crowded patch of frozen water without doing any lasting damage to our spinal chord really does appeal to us.

Living in London we’re lucky enough to have a nice choice of rinks to choose from for our seasonal skating, and it seems more pop up every year (we hear there’s an ice disco at the O2 arena this year, anyone been to that yet?).

Today we put together a Qype list of our top skating destinations in London. Take a look and see if you agree with us, and if you’ve visited any of our favourites why not add a review of your own (complete with pictures of you falling over of course).

And if you think we’ve missed out any top skating destinations in our list, just let us know in the Comments to this post.

See you on the ice!

(Photo from casseteboy’s Flickr acount, used under the Creative Commons Licence.)