Added by
David Coleman
on
14 February 2012
QR Codes can hold Internet addresses
or plain text including 'phone numbers
You may have seen those funny, square, black and white symbols popping up all over the place (example to the right), from official documents to soft drinks cans. These are called QR codes and are like bar codes but able to hold more information.
According to their Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code , QR codes were invented by Toyota to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.
The reason they’re becoming so popular with the rest of the world is that by downloading a free app (links below), most modern smart mobile phones can read them. When you scan one of these codes your phone deciphers it as a string of text. This text can be a message but more often than not is a link to a website.
My gripe with them however is that everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon and everyone ONLY EVER seems to put a link to their website’s homepage. If I wanted to visit your website I’d have typed the address in myself! I feel tricked and used!
I hereby call upon anybody using a QR code for advertising to go to the extra effort of creating a page on your website specifically for the people that bothered to get their phones out, fire up the QR reading software and scan in your code!
Reward them for playing along. Give them a special offer. Show them a picture of a funny cat. Use your imagination. Just make sure it’s worth their while else everyone will stop scanning them in!
Generate your own QR Codes here: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
Free QR code reader for the iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/qr-reader-for-iphone/id368494609?mt=8
Free QR code reader for Android 'phones: https://market.android.com/details?id=appinventor.ai_progetto2003.SCAN&hl=en
Reward people for scanning
your QR code. Image from here.