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Qype is an application for sharing recommendations for places in many countries from restaurants to events. It can be used to check out what a certain place is like, or where to find a certain kind of food in an area. Entering a postcode will yield a picture of what kind of facilities are offered in a certain area.

Qype was founded in November 2005 as a user-generated review site for global shopping, restaurants, arts, entertainment, health & beauty, nightlife, services, and events. Stephan Uhrenbacher, from Germany, created Qype after finding it difficult to find a school for his son. The idea behind the application is that it provides personal recommendations that users can trust. Qype UK was launched in 2007 and Qype France in 2008.

Ratings and feedback are user-generated so a well-rounded picture of the item being researched is obtained.

The home page is quite busy, but easy to navigate. It offers the latest reviews as well as a Qype mobile device download for site use on-the-go. Categories, tags, and area guides are all presented on the home page. It can be a bit overwhelming, but with patience, a user can find all of the data they are looking for.

Businesses may post special offers and deals on the site as well. Users can filter category results by those with special offers.

Reviews provide ratings (out of 5 stars), comments, and pros and cons. After reading a review, users can ‘like’ it, compliment it, or comment on it. The blog offers the latest information about Qype. Badges are awarded for writing reviews, uploading photos, and creating guides.

Some countries have more comprehensive content than others and because of this yield more useful results. For example, the US is not sorted by state and has limited content offerings.

Users may sign in using accounts from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, myspace, or Windows Live ID. If none of these are available, a new Qype account may be created. For a new account, users must provide a username, email address, city and town, and password. A verification email completes the registration process.

Qype is completely free to use.

Travelers looking for recommendations while on holiday, or people moving to a new location can find plenty of information on Qype.

• Free to use
• Easy registration
• Intuitive interface
• Customizable categories including: Education, Hotels, Sports, Transportation, and more
• Map of each location
• Nearby sights
• Users may add YouTube video to reviews

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