I guess I should have posted this a while ago but I’m currently away for a bit of a vacation. Chilaxing in Japan at the moment. So far I’ve been to Osaka’s Universal Studios for the New Year count down, Gifu for snowboarding and now I’m hanging out in Nagoya. In a few days I’m going to be heading off to Tokyo!

I’ve decided to try out Vlogging and hopefully you’ll like it! If you do, I’ll keep going! Oh and don’t forget to visit the ILQ YouTube channel as well as Facebook page. The team and I have added some great stuff!

Oh! Almost forgot, yes the rumors are true the Intercontinental, Alive and ILQ are partnering up to bring over James Blunt on February!
There’s loads more to share but I need to cut it short!

Ma3asalama!

So Dine Out Doha has been getting off to a great start and the reviews and comments are starting to come in! Exciting stuff!

If you haven’t been yet, click here for Dine Out Doha. Be sure to start rating, commenting, posting micro-reviews or even submitting your full fledged restaurant reviews too!

Now you’ll remember we launched what we called the Beta of I Love Qatar at http://beta.iloveqatar.net (it’s actually an alpha). We did something special which was taking the link live even though it was still being built! We did that so that people could watch the site come together! Now the great news is that we should be around 2 and half weeks away from completion!

What’s even more exciting is that we’re going to revealing the awesome new MyLife function as well as the new ILQ Originals which will host a great amount of original content too! We’ve got some great Qatari comics, Online videos, skits, and some stuff that’s under wraps for the moment too.

In the mean while, you can go ahead and sign in (or sign up) in the beta section of ILQ and play around by posting events in the new event section or even start posting in the new forums.

(Don’t worry, you won’t lose anything once we remove the ‘beta’ tag from it).

Anyway! That’s my update!

Hey there all! I just thought I’d let people know of the many ways people can support ILQ!

1) Clicking on ads! Yep, the easiest way is to just click on banners! ILQ relies on sponsors, so if you click on banners then that helps us not only maintain the site but also generate funds to sponsor more events!

2) Spreading the word. Let people know about the fantastic community that iLoveQatar.net is.
People can make friends here, find answers on the forums, check out the classifieds, find out the latest events in Qatar, read up on Qatar related news, join one of the largest friend networks there is (Qfriends) and read up on a great guide!

3) Adding ILQ buttons in your signature! Create a button and add it onto your signature or blog! We’ve also made some buttons for you to use here http://www.iloveqatar.net/linkus.php

4) Share your articles and opinions. Why not write and share articles on ILQ’s forums. We’ll be launching a dedicated section out of the forums but until then, you can write reviews or even share some funny stories!

5) Link exchange. If you’ve got a site, ILQ would love to know about it. We don’t mind people linking to their sites on the forums (as long as they either link back or participate on ILQ).

6) Volunteering! We participate and sponsor loads of events in Qatar. It could be something charitable (like a red crescent event or doing something nice for the labourers) OR something more entertaining (like helping out at the David Guetta or Akon events). Yep not only are you helping out the community but you’re also

7) Updating the guide! If you spot something that isn’t right or something that should be added. Let us know! Drop us a line at contact@iloveqatar.net and we’ll get the guide updated.

8) Install the alexa toolbar from (http://www.alexa.com) and then set ILQ as your homepage. [www.iloveqatar.net]

Do you prefer setting google as your homepage? Here’s an ILQ version! http://www.iloveqatar.net/search

Want to set google as your homepage AND help the environment? Then set http://www.iloveqatar.net/search/black.html as your homepage.

Read this article http://blog.iloveqatar.net/2009/11/energy-efficient-google/ for how you’re helping the environment!

I’m sure you guys can come up with other ways of helping out! Whether it be partnering, sticking stickers around, or just helping out on the forums or our facebook group (which as of today has over 8,400 members!)

Oh! Don’t forget to ‘Like’ ILQ’s Fan page http://www.facebook.com/iloveqtr and Join the ILQ Facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/khalifas?v=wall&story_fbid=158935400797225&po=1#!/group.php?gid=36900681716

Although I’m ill with a cold. I figured I’d be a bit more productive than just laying around watching tv. Tomorrow is the ILQ team meet-up so I figured I’d at least have a nice web update to share.

You can now view the spotlighted events on the front page. Besides the list of events, we’ll be highlighting major events or events that are special to ILQ.

We’ve also gone ahead and added a newsletter sign up box to the left of the site! (I’ll be adding one to the right on blog).

Want to sign up? Just click on this link and it’ll take you to the sign up page.  It’s called The Buzz http://eepurl.com/-WUE

Don’t worry, you won’t get spammed and we will never share your email address with anyone. You’ll get a monthly digest from ILQ that lists events that are coming up, note worthy blog and forum posts and maybe a few vouchers or offers here and there!

This was a bit of surprise. Hukoomi now has a new layout and design. Feels more blog like. I kind of miss the older design.
(For those that don’t know what it is, it’s a page for people to renew visas, pay traffic violations, renew documents etc..)

What say you?

Visit Hukoomi at www.hukoomi.com

With all the updates going on at ILQ, I thought it was about time we tweaked the blog a bit.

On the right hand side, you’ll now notice a few changes. 1) There’s a tag cloud so you can find the most common tagged terms, there’s my twitter feed, and there’s the Qatar Events twitter feed.

For those who don’t know there are a few great ILQ powered Twitter channels.

QatarEvents – http://www.twitter.com/qatarevents

It’s updated with the latest events and happenings in Qatar.

QatarNews – http://www.twitter.com/qatarnews

Grab important news from a variety of sources related to Qatar.