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.