Posts Tagged ‘Qype’
Rebate coupons from Qype
5 Feb. 2009 | Author: 
Price reductions or two-for-the-price-of-one, using coupons/vouchers usually tempt clients. This has been noted by Qype; registered businesses have recently been able to offer such deals on the local search and ratings portal.
Locations offering rebates are marked with a red tag in the results lists. In the entries themselves, one finds a coupon on the right, over the map view. On clicking, users can view, print and redeem the vouchers by the respective companies or service providers.
In a post in the company blog, the community manager of Qype, Stephan ‘Moe’ Mosel, announces the new function, and illustrates these with some examples. As the application is very new, there are as yet very few vouchers on offer at present.
In the USA, this form of advertising has been represented for some time on local search services (see our post). In Germany, the online directory glenglobe.de has until now been the only local service provider offering something similar.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Practical features | 
Tags: Bewertungsplattform, Bewertungsportal, Gutschein, Gutscheine, Preisnachlässe, Qype, Rabatte, Rabattmarke, Rabattscheine | 
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Qype releases API; announces new CEO
Qype is on the move: alongside its announcement of its new head, it has also released its API and is offering to reward developers for the best mashups.
It was recently announced that Qype-founder and CEO until now, Stephan Uhrenbacher has resigned his position. He will become Chairman of the Board, as described by the company in a press release. The new head of Qype is Stephen Taylor, whose credits include Regional Vice President and Managing Director von Yahoo! Europe as well as Managing Director of Overture Europe.
Just a few days before the change in management was announced, the company released their API. As announced in a press release, content from Qype, such as places, ratings, locations, place categories or photos become accessible for integration in mashups and other apps. The recently released ‘Qype Radar” application for iPhone (see our post) is based, for example, on the API.
Developers can download version 1.0 of the Qype API, and start designing applications. In fact, the best apps will be rewarded: first prize will receive a prize of Euro 3.500, second prize Euro 1.000 and third prize Euro 500. To participate, developers must submit their completed new apps by February 28, 2009 to Qype.
The API is not going to remain at v.1.0. As Stephan Uhrenbacher announced in the company blog, the first quarter 2009 should see the appearance of the Qype-API 2.0. Using the innovations of this API, it is planned to also integrate photos and reports from Qype.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search per Mobile phone, Local Search, News, Practical features |
Tags: API, Bewertungen, Bewertungsplattform, Bewertungsportal, Community, Empfehlungsportal, lokale Informationen, lokales Such- und Bewertungportal, Qype, Qype Radar, Stephan Uhrenbacher, Stephen Taylor, User Generated Content, web2 0 |
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Yelp starts in the United Kingdom
In July 2004, the local search and ratings portal Yelp was founded in the USA. It has continued to expand since its launch, introducing a Canadian version in August 2008 and finally has crossed the Atlantic to Britain.
Yelp-CEO and co-founder Yeremy Stoppelman detailed the changes in the company blog. Now Yelp users can also search for undertakings, and relevant ratings in London and surroundings.
In a press announcement, Stoppelman disclosed that London has long been a planned destination – it being the center of the English-speaking world, and comes additionally as a result of the wishes of British Yelp users.
Yelp is one of the market leaders in the area of local Web2.0 portals in the USA. According to sources, Yelp’s users have submitted more than 4,5 million ratings. In December 2008 alone, the website recorded a total of 16,6 million unique visitors. Can one predict a similar success story in the UK? The competition has not been sleeping ¬ Yelp is going head-to-head with successful contenders, including Brownbook, Trusted Places and the German search and ratings portal Qype (already in Britain since June 2007).
GelbeSeiten.de: Leading online branch directory
“GelbeSeiten remains clearly the number one of branch directories – online and offline”, recently announced by GelbeSeiten Marketing GmbH in a press release. This is supported by the current data (regarding the online sphere) released by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung (aka AGOF).
The statement concerns the conclusions of the AGOF, the leading online marketer in Germany. The AGOF publishes quarterly the market media study “Internet facts“. The latest evaluation appeared mid December 2008, covering the 3rd quarter 2008.
This analysis counted an average of 3,05 million unique visitors monthly to GelbeSeiten, for the period July – September 2008. This is 19% up from the 2nd quarter total million unique visitors. Y=The portal thus moved up to position 33 in the study, and became the most visited site of its kind during this period, at least in a limited field. This was discussed by Uwe Frigg, COO of GelbeSeiten Marketing GmbH, in a press report. “Contrary to other competitors, we do not obscure our market by combining our field of expertise of branch directories and telephone directories, with private customer data.
Moreover, GelbeSeiten is the only one of the studied local search services that exclusively offers searches of commercial addresses. In comparison with other local search services analyzed by AGOF, GelbeSeite was actually trumped by DasTelefonbuch (place 15), DasOertliche (place 15) and meinestadt.de (place 17). Lower ranked were Qype (place 58 with an average 1,49 million users), tying with Klicktel (also 1,49 million users). GoYellow was even further down the list at place 65 and pointoo at place 101.
Posted in General, Local Search per PC, Local Search, News |
Tags: AGOF, Branchenbuch, Branchenverzeichnis, Branchenverzeichnisse, dasoertliche, DasTelefonbuch, GelbeSeiten, GoYellow, internet facts, Klicktel, lokale Informationen, lokale Suchdienste, meinestadt.de, Onlinebranchenverzeichnis, pointoo, Qype |
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Local Search 2009. Where next?
At the start of each year, it is usual to read prognoses of trends for the coming months – so also in the Local Search sphere. The outlook indicates many developments especially in the mobile sector.
At least, that’s what Greg Sterling of Screenwerk sees in his crystal ball. His view is based on the theory that large areas of the internet, such as social networking, will in the future be available for mobile use, as users increasingly buy and use laptops, netbooks and other mobile devices. Michael Boland of Localsearchnews also shares this opinion. In his eyes, the iPhone is playing a pivotal rôle in the development of the mobile internet, with local search coming out the big winner. He sees a clear connection between local search and mobile applications.
Alongside the mobile development of the internet, Sterling also sees the geolocation of PCs also being of growing significance. And in the marketing zone, current development continues to expand: small and medium sized companies are increasingly using new advertising methods such as video and online marketing. This trend is having a detrimental effect on the print media, especially newspapers and printed directories.
Most local search services are already equipping themselves for the future, implementing not only the static internet, but for quite a while have also targeted the mobile area. Many firms already offer mobile applications (such as DasTelefonbuch, GoYellow, Qype, 11880.com). And with Ö-Navi, DasÖrtliche has been a pioneer in ad-financed, gratis-use for mobile navigation.
Qype’s iPhone app is here
Announced a while ago by Qype-CEO Stephan Uhrenbacher (see our report), the app has finally made its appearance. The geo-sensitive application has been released, tailor-made for the iPhone.
As Uhrenbacher details in the company blog, the app is called Qype Radar. Using GPS or triangulation, the app recognizes the location of the user and automatically show the best addresses in the user’s vicinity, including ratings of other Qypers. Through this, one has the choice of varied categories such as restaurants, bars, shops, hotels or clubs. Thanks to the integration with Google Maps, at a click of an address one can navigate to its location on the map and generate route plans.
iPhone users can download this free application from the App Store.
Qype has also been busy on the (non-mobile) web. The local ratings portal continues to target the international sphere (see our post). In November 2008 a Brazilian version was launched, following the German, English, French and Spanish versions. And as of mid December 2008, there is now a Polish edition as well.
Posted in General, Local Search on the go, Local Search per Mobile phone, Local Search, News |
Tags: Apple, Beurteilungen, Bewertungen, geosensitiv, google maps, GPS, iPhone, Kritiken, Mobilfunkzelle, Ortung, Qype, Qype Radar, Local Search |
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Web Services with new iPhone applications
More and more Internet portals offering localized services are releasing new applications for the Apple iPhone. Google now offers a voice search, internet community lokalisten.de recently launched their own iPhone app, and Qype is working on one of their own software…
The new specialty of Google’s new iPhone software, according to a press release, is above all their new search by voice command, which at present is still only available in English; the second special feature being actual-location search. This update uses the localization function of the iPhone, making the search results even more specific (and ‘personal’). So one can search for “pizza” (by typing or speaking) and generate results directly in the user’s immediate vicinity, without having to specify the location via name or zip code.
The local friends community lokalisten.de has also recently released its own iPhone 3G version. In a press release, the operators explained that owners of iPhones with the software installed (always only available from the iTunes App Store) can access special features. For instance, the current standpoint of the user can be requested (via GPS) and directly relayed to the user’s friends on a map. Sending and receiving of news also is possible via iPhone. Lokalistas can thereby always see where their friends are and what they are currently doing.
Local search and rating platform Qype, on the other hand, is working on a new version for the iPhone. Qype CEO Stephan Uhrenbacher, in the company blog drew this to readers’ attention. Qype also uses the location-aware function, where the iPhone can transmit the actual location of the user. A release date for the application could not be made, at the time of the press release.
Posted in Local Search on the go, Local Search per Mobile phone, Local Search, Localization technology, New Search Machine Interest, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: Apple, Google, iPhone, Kulthandy, lokale Informationen, Lokalisten, Lokalisten.de, ortsbezogene Suchdienste, Qype, Spracheingabe |
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Qype speaks Spanish
Qype is becoming more international: a year after its German launch in early 2006, Qype followed with a launch in Britain, and in early 2008 in France. In summer 2008, portals for Switzerland and Austria appeared on the web, and recently Qype made its Spanish debut.
Qype-CEO Stephan Uhrenmacher, made this announcement in the company blog. Not only Spanish nationals profit from this launch – other speakers will benefit from the new content, such as businesses, hotels and restaurants in Barcelona, Madrid and elsewhere.
With this latest launch, the local search and rating platform is now available in four language-editions: German, English, French and now Spanish.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News |
Tags: Beurteilung, Bewertungsplattform, Community, lokale Informationen, Nutzerbewertung, Qype, Spanien, Spanisch, Suchdienste, User Generated Content |
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Qype now also has events
In the last August week, the local search and ratings platform Qype has expanded their functionality by introducing an “Events” tab, where the user can, for example, find events at a particular location, rate it, comment or indicate whether or not they will be attending.
Qype-CEO Stephan Uhrenbacher announced the new feature in the company blog. He sees the new event calendar as the most important development of the portal. The need had become keen – users were already recommending block parties, rock concerts and the like.
The new feature, according to Uhrenbacher, was launched simultaneously in the German, English and French language editions of Qype. At the time of launching there were already over 150,000 events in the database – Uhrenbacher did not however mention the source of the data for these events.
Qype for business
The local search and ratings portal Qype has started a new service for companies and service providers, called “Qype for business”.
This was announced by Qype C.E.O. Stephan Uhrenbacher in the German-language blog of the Web 2.0 portal. According to Uhrenbacher this service offers the business owners additional functions to those previously available, so as to facilitate a web presence. Business can update their information, upload a short description and unlimited photos, assign keywords and categories, and all that gratis. Also new is that the businesses receive a daily e-mail summary of all pertinent ratings and uploaded photos, delivering the advantage of being in close touch with user activity.
With these innovations, Uhrenbacher states that the new additional Qype data will improve discovery by Google’s search engines. “For many undertakings, Qype can serve as the simplest version of a homepage in the web”, said Uhrenbacher about the improvements.
