We have a launch date

During the weekend, I did a lot of running in the dunes near sealine. It was tough going, since I stuck to the soft sand, but it also gave me time to mull over the launch date for qbay. I came up with the date when the technical solution will be ready and then did my best to avoid heat stroke and crazy drivers. That's unfair actually. I've heard a lot of stories about mad drivers in the dunes, but after 4 weekends of running in Qatar, I've only had offers of water, lifts, support etc... and no near misses.

Having a technical solution is only part of the challenge, we also need to have content and some marketing to backup the launch. So, I had a word with the marketing department and the CEO and we've come up with May 1 2009. We have a lot to do before the launch. We'll be getting Qatar based stores signed up for store fronts, planning a public launch party and working on spreading the word that there's a new auction site in town.

As for technical news, I've been busy getting the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) building blocks in place for the launch and making sure that the site is properly monitored and optimised. I've still got to setup Nagios, but once that's done, I'll have an early warning as soon as there's a problem with the site.