July 2020 update: The site is not functional now, hence this review is no longer relevant.
Note: Had to republish this due to some errors. Sorry if it appears again on your feed reader. If so you may check my September Archive here- Admin
Qype is a consumer review website, focused primarily on London. The moment I saw this site what came to my mind was Indian Consumer review site, mouthshut.com. Anyhow this post is a quick review of this website.
Design:
Looks Good. Space is well optimized and clear tabs are provided to facilitate easy navigation. Too much of text is bad, but a content and consumer review site will have to make provisions to display lots of text.
A two box search is designed to help people search something in a specific location. This has its pros and cons. Locations listed are minimal and those searching in general will face a mismatch.
Tabs displayed on the home page are customizable-For example if you prefer 'Transportation' tab visible on homepage instead of 'Nightlife', you can have it that way. Not many sites provide this feature.
Space occupied by ads is not too much.
Content:
While Mouthshut enforces a minimum word limit for reviews, Qype doesn't seem to have such restrictions. Some reviews are too short, some are very long. Registration required for commenting.
Besides consumer written reviews on various places, products and services such as restaurants and pubs London , the site also provides maps, tourist information and updates on various events happening in the city. But their rating system is a bit ambiguous- At times I could not make out if the rating was for the venue that was reviewed (how good it is on a scale of 0-5) or about the review (how well the user has reviewed the subject)
Some of the contents do not qualify as a review (for example, some has reviewed Delhi High court and all he has written in his review is one para history of DHC). Some minimum standards/guidelines should be enforced to ensure that reviews serve their purpose. No provision to add images to the review (one can add tags and youtube videos)
Users:
For registered users Qype offers all options such as import address book, point system to encourage more and more writing as well as all other ingredients to keep members engaged and hooked to the site. (such as Qype Insider and Ninja designations for active users, photo uploads, calendar and complements registry) Registration was easy and fast, but a quick guide for new visitors was missing-that could have helped newcomers get better understanding of the site and its features.
Though focused on London Qype aims to cover other cities and countries also. It has an India section: www.qype.co.uk/in, but not much contents there. Indian business database is also not comprehensive. (I searched for Hyatt, it showed only Hyatt Regency Delhi, not the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai or other Hyatt hotels in India) Probably they haven't focused on India much or couldn't face competition from Indian review sites.
Qype has a strong page rank of 5 and draws decent traffic. Overall a very useful site for zeroing in on places and activities in London. Those visiting UK will find it useful to identify a restaurants London or other similar things. Qype also has presence on twitter and facebook to stay connected. Let me know if you feel I could have reviewed this site in a different way. OkTataByeBye, Burrp are some similar Indian sites.
Qype is a consumer review website, focused primarily on London. The moment I saw this site what came to my mind was Indian Consumer review site, mouthshut.com. Anyhow this post is a quick review of this website.
Design:
Looks Good. Space is well optimized and clear tabs are provided to facilitate easy navigation. Too much of text is bad, but a content and consumer review site will have to make provisions to display lots of text.
A two box search is designed to help people search something in a specific location. This has its pros and cons. Locations listed are minimal and those searching in general will face a mismatch.
Tabs displayed on the home page are customizable-For example if you prefer 'Transportation' tab visible on homepage instead of 'Nightlife', you can have it that way. Not many sites provide this feature.
Space occupied by ads is not too much.
Content:
While Mouthshut enforces a minimum word limit for reviews, Qype doesn't seem to have such restrictions. Some reviews are too short, some are very long. Registration required for commenting.
Besides consumer written reviews on various places, products and services such as restaurants and pubs London , the site also provides maps, tourist information and updates on various events happening in the city. But their rating system is a bit ambiguous- At times I could not make out if the rating was for the venue that was reviewed (how good it is on a scale of 0-5) or about the review (how well the user has reviewed the subject)
Some of the contents do not qualify as a review (for example, some has reviewed Delhi High court and all he has written in his review is one para history of DHC). Some minimum standards/guidelines should be enforced to ensure that reviews serve their purpose. No provision to add images to the review (one can add tags and youtube videos)
Users:
For registered users Qype offers all options such as import address book, point system to encourage more and more writing as well as all other ingredients to keep members engaged and hooked to the site. (such as Qype Insider and Ninja designations for active users, photo uploads, calendar and complements registry) Registration was easy and fast, but a quick guide for new visitors was missing-that could have helped newcomers get better understanding of the site and its features.
Though focused on London Qype aims to cover other cities and countries also. It has an India section: www.qype.co.uk/in, but not much contents there. Indian business database is also not comprehensive. (I searched for Hyatt, it showed only Hyatt Regency Delhi, not the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai or other Hyatt hotels in India) Probably they haven't focused on India much or couldn't face competition from Indian review sites.
Qype has a strong page rank of 5 and draws decent traffic. Overall a very useful site for zeroing in on places and activities in London. Those visiting UK will find it useful to identify a restaurants London or other similar things. Qype also has presence on twitter and facebook to stay connected. Let me know if you feel I could have reviewed this site in a different way. OkTataByeBye, Burrp are some similar Indian sites.
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ReplyDeleteok there you go sir...now can you tell me do u need to have pay-pal account for this??..and can we have pay-pal accounts in india??
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance
or you can mail me at marsreturn4u@gmail.com
Yes, you can have a paypal account. Anyone can create a paypal account and you can easily connect it to any Indian Bank account for transfer. More details will be available in paypal website
ReplyDeleteI loved your blog. Thank you.
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