Here at Qype HQ we’re big believers in that old saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, if only because taking photos of a cool place saves a lot of wear and tear on our typing fingers.

And even if your prose is of Shakespearean quality just adding of a hastily taken, slightly blurry image taken on your phone to your review can really help communicate the awesomeness of a burger or some cheesy interior decor to your fellow Qypers.

And because we think Qype is a prettier place when it has more photos we thought we’d reward all those shutterbugs out there by giving away a sweet digital camera.

Here’s the deal: On Friday April 11th we’ll give away a 7 megapixel Fujifilm FinePix S5700 to someone who’s uploaded at least one image to Qype between now and then.

That means every time you upload an image in the next month (whether it’s a photo of a place or even a profile pic of your lovely smiling face) then you’ll increase your chance of winning the camera.

So what are you waiting for? Get snapping and cross your fingers (not both at the same time though, obviously).

There are some people on Qype who manage to write excellent reviews of just about everywhere they go. Whereas we often get too drunk to remember where we go.

Annette Strauch has over 11,000 Qype points so we had a chat with her to find out more.

Tell us more about yourself.
I just love meeting people from all different walks of life and from different cultures. I had an emergency operation on my spine four years ago - and was very ill but this taught me you only life once! This is my Qype motto: Live life to the full! It is up to you and in your mind what you can do and what you cannot. I love travelling.

I love wellness and saunas. That is why I like those reviews on Qype. Also I like good wine, chocolates and good music.

How did you get so many points?
It is a surprise to me really! I do not really care about the points - but it is nice to see that people are reading my reviews.

What makes you happy about the place you’re reviewing?
The good experience at a place, happy memories, a nice day out - all that makes me happy when I review that place and also the fact that I share the place with interested readers such as fellow qypers.

The place you actually wanted to keep a secret?
Llanfrothen Castle. Not many people know about this place in North Wales and it is nice and remote. A nice little castle in a stunning scenery.

How can people write better reviews?
If they write reviews that are not too short and not too long. Trying to grasp the important info and writing it in an intersting style. This is the secret.

Who else should you look out for?
Hafi46, FalkAndrea and Scipio.

What else do you want to see happening at Qype?
Even more active users in the UK, especially in Wales, maybe Qype Italy, Qype Spain, a real European Qype - this would be my dream!

Just because we introduced Qype version 3.0 a few weeks ago that doesn’t mean we’ve been sat around twiddling our thumbs and playing Scrabulous. In fact we’re always making small improvements to the site based on the feedback we get from the Qype community.

So here’s a couple of recent tweaks you may not have noticed yet.

For Qypers on the move we’d added Google Maps to our mobile site (m.qype.co.uk) so now not only can you find the best places nearby, you can get directions as well. All you have to do is select the place you want to visit and then click on the ‘Map’ link. Easy!

Since the release of the new version we’ve had a few people ask us about multiple profile pictures. So now, if you visit your My Qype page, you’ll see a link on your profile pic which allows you to upload more snaps of yourself and change your current mugshot. And don’t forget if you want to browse through all the photos you’ve uploaded to Qype, you can do that on your My Photos page.

There’s plenty of more tweaks to come, but if you’ve got any suggestions for further improvements in the meantime please send them our way or leave a comment on this post.

This weekend was a pretty exciting one for Qype in terms of publicity for the site.

On Saturday we sent a few pies to the XFM studios to mark the beginning of British Pie Week and the grateful DJs ended up inviting their listeners over to Leicester Square for a slice of free patry-encased loveliness. One of our eagle-eared users heard the programme and told us about it on the Pie Week forums (thanks vixff!).

Then, the very next day, we were featured in Rob Waugh’s internet page in the Mail on Sunday. Rob gave us a fantastic four star rating and said some lovely things about us:

“Unlike Facebook, there are no Zombies, Funwalls, SuperPokes or other pointless social “games”. Qype is focused entirely on you, your area , and what to do there… some of the user-made guides are genuinely great… Qype is easy to use and has the sort of clean layout that is the reason Facebook triumphed over MySpace.”

You can read the whole thing by clicking on the picture on the right (the article isn’t on the Mail’s website yet unfortunately).

So if you’re reading this as a result of hearing about us via XFM or the Mail then let me be the first to say hello, and thanks for popping by. We hope we’ll see a lot more of you in the future :)