You might have noticed some particularly odd looking black boxes starting to appear in advertising.  Have you wondered what they are?  We’re quite excited at the possibilities that this simple idea offers and the opportunities they create – they are there for you and your customers!

They are a type of 2-dimensional barcodes, and like all new things, there are a couple of choices – the Google QR-Codes or Microsoft TAG.

In both cases, all you need to do is an download a free app on onto your smart phone – just go to the AppStore (iPhone) or Marketplace (WP7 or Android) and search for Microsoft TAG and QR.  Then, when you see a mark like either of the ones below, simply run the right App – QR for the code on the left, Microsoft Tag for the one on the right, and that’s it.  It’ll then read the code and take you to the right link on your cellphone.

So what? 

These codes can contain all sorts of information.  The most common might be a web address or they could be contact details – imagine when someone passes you their business card with one of these on it, you simply scan the card and the person’s details are uploaded into your phone immediately.

In fact, you are only limited by your imagination.  Here are some examples :-

• Maybe you are looking for a used car.  The A4 sheet on the window contains a certain amount of information, but with a smart code on the page, you can now have a webpage specific to that vehicle with even more information. 
• Real estate agents are no longer limited to the A4 sheet in the window of their office – now they can put a code that allows a prospective purchaser to get much more information about a property for sale than would normally fit on a page – photos, school zones, nearest amenities, open home times (agent’s phone number!!) and even locate the property on a map, complete with driving instructions to find it
• A speaker at a conference can put a code on the last page of their presentation that lets members of the audience get a copy of the paper/powerpoint presentation directly on to their cellphone

The simple magic of these is that you can now make it easy for someone to find a specific page on your website, no matter how obscure the name is.  It means that people can easily get information about you or your product. 

Business Intelligence

So, are Google or Microsoft tracking which tags get used a lot?  Of course they are.  And of course it will influence how their search engines work.   But you can also grab this information – for example, when you log into the Microsoft Tag site (www.microsoft.com/tag) you can see how often  how often people are using people are using your tags and which are most popular.