12-31-2009, 12:48 AM
I received a sticker in the mail from Google today that they suggest putting in our window. The sticker has a QR Code barcode. I've seen these before, but never really figured out what they were for. I found an app for iPhone that will decode the barcode and it automatically opens a website in Safari. The sticker that Google sent to us opens up a link to my company's listing on google.com/localbusinesscenter. It is neat, but doesn't seem very practical. If a person is standing in front of our business and they scan the sticker their phone takes them to the Google listing that shows them a map and directions for how to get to where they are currently standing. I'm sure that Google has a reason for doing this. Anyone know why? The wikipedia entry says that the barcodes are used widely in Japan but doesn't really elaborate on how or why. I found that you can use a website to generate your own QR Code to direct people to a website, send an SMS text, place a call, or just copy some transmit some text.
Wikipedia article on QR Codes
AAPL at Finance.google.com
Want to call Apple?
How about just transmitting some text from your webpage to someone's phone by scanning it?
What is cool is that you can read the barcode from your computer screen or even from within photos that appear on your computer screen that have a bar code in them. It seems to be a very robust coding format. The app that I found to read the codes is called 'QR App'. You just open the app and it activates the camera. When it detects a QR Code it locks on and just sort of does its thing.
So again, how would you use this? I'm think that you could post your phone number, website, email address, etc. on a web page that can't currently be scanned by bots. I'm sure someone could program the bots to read the barcodes, but not currently. Maybe they already do this in Japan. I don't know.
Wikipedia article on QR Codes
AAPL at Finance.google.com
Want to call Apple?
How about just transmitting some text from your webpage to someone's phone by scanning it?
What is cool is that you can read the barcode from your computer screen or even from within photos that appear on your computer screen that have a bar code in them. It seems to be a very robust coding format. The app that I found to read the codes is called 'QR App'. You just open the app and it activates the camera. When it detects a QR Code it locks on and just sort of does its thing.
So again, how would you use this? I'm think that you could post your phone number, website, email address, etc. on a web page that can't currently be scanned by bots. I'm sure someone could program the bots to read the barcodes, but not currently. Maybe they already do this in Japan. I don't know.