"It's the hyperlink in the physical world" says a Microsoft PR man, giving us the most succinct definition of what Redmond's
Tag initiative is all about. Having announced its alternative take on the barcode at CES 2009, Microsoft has been working behind the scenes on proliferating the use of these multicolored Tags, which are designed to be snapped by nearby cameraphones. Once the pattern is recognized, you can obtain digital content directly on your phone -- whether it be a website link, YouTube video, or whatever -- and the uses are pretty much limitless: business cards, product packaging, magazines, anything that can benefit from supplemental online content and has a flat surface is a candidate to be Tagged. Such is the theory anyhow, and Microsoft's doing all it can to make it happen, with software for most mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Video demonstration after the break.
posted February 1st 2010 8:17AM
@PaulSorensen
Agreed, the editors have a responsibility to place articles like this in context, otherwise, we might as well just be reading press releases.
How does this compare to the already widely supported QR codes?
yes, why no mention in this article of QR Code which has existed for some time and has been in wide use in Asia for years?? even some major retailers in US have started using QR code. the article makes it sound like Microsoft has offering some unique innovation here...
OTOH, I guess introducing a proprietary 2D barcode that can represent up to 13bytes of data vs license-free QR code capable of more than 4Kbytes of data could be considered innovative...
@bac
I think the difference isn't so much as data density as much as the Tag requires the use of a central server. This may seem like a fail but from a marketing perspective it's a huge win because you can run some deep analytics on 'snapthrough' rate, demographics, location, and so forth. You can also 'expire' the link, update it to point at new things, and so forth. For a company this may actually be a much more valuable tool than a QR code.
If Microsoft's tags require internet access to get to the data (i.e., their tags don't contain the data, only links to the data), then this concept is dead from the start.
The problem is that you are thinking about this from a geek's perspective. QR holds more data, it's open source, etc etc etc. All of those things make it technically better than Tag except for one issue. The people actually printing this on things can't track usage easily. What Tag does is automatically force a connection to a server which can be used to provide tracking data allowing the provider to assess the effectiveness *and* help MS set pricing based on real world usage data. In those terms its sufficiently better than QR that you'll probably see more adoption by corporations in the US than you will with QR.
@rapier1 Microsoft does not charge for tags. The other great thing about Tag vs. QR codes is that the creator can change the destination of the Tag. This is not possible with QR codes and is an important function.
Agree?
@MicrosoftTag That makes no sense to me. If I create a distinct URL to serve as the target of my QR-code, I can:
1. Make the page an HTTP redirect to anywhere I like, and change the destination at any time.
2. Use standard website analytics tools to see who is hitting that URL.
3. Expire the code by placing content at my URL saying "Sorry, this link is expired".
Can I not?
@piggy You're quite correct, but there are other big advantages for Microsoft that you're not considering:
1. They can track you. Valuable datamining FTW!
2. They can turn off your stuff whenever they feel like it.
Why would you use QRCode when you can let MS decide the fate of your business?
This sort of thing will probably appeal to fresh-outta-school marketing students, but I see more downsides than up.
@(Unverified) Well as stated in other replies:
The advantage for Tag over QR codes are quite real
1- Ability to change where the code resolves to - This comes in very handy! This is not possible with QR codes
2- Analytics See how successful a tag is. This is very valuable data for code creators
3- Scalability
4- Customization - from color to adding in logos and pictures -
Care to discuss?
Twitter: @microsofttag
OMG this is really acrauty i got off itunes and usedint on my iphone 2g and worked really well tested it on the image above but don't see it being a big thing
@Jeza it's great for marketing that's for sure! No it's not the biggest new thing! Yes, it's a great tool for many! :-)
Does anyone remember cuecats?
Not thundercats...
But cuecats.... from everyone's favorite strip mall shop - radioshack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
Why is this news now? These things are already out in the wild and have been for at least a couple months. I've already seen them in a brochure for the 2010 Taurus and a pack of Stride gum. What's suddenly so different that this is worth blogging about?
I'd prefer something that is both human AND machine readable. Shouldn't we be able to do this?
I'm not really impressed. As many have said before, it IS just like a QR Code, except for a few differences:
Microsoft's tags don't store anything but a serial number, so when scanned you must be online and you'll be taken to the MS site to get whatever the serial number is linked to. Yes, this means you can update the link, but it also means your link is only valid as long as Microsoft allows it to be.
It's pretty, and I like it, but there's no way I'd want my business relying on something MS says is only good for 'at least two years'. By my reckoning that's about two years and five minutes before MS makes your precious product labels useless.
I talk more about it here:
http://nfgworld.com/mb/post/2224