November 01, 2011
Mobile barcodes: What's with all the little boxes?
Tag code uses appear endless and are limited only by your imagination
Mobile tagging is the process of providing data read from tags for display on mobile devices (source: Wikipedia). These are commonly encoded in a two-dimensional barcode and use the camera of a cell phone as the reader device. The content of the tag code is usually a URL for information that is addressed and accessible through the Internet.
There are dozens of different 2D barcode standards. However, there are approximately 12 that are popular today with mobile phone users. In addition, Microsoft has developed their own proprietary tag identified by small multi-colored triangles.
Do you use mobile barcodes? You may have noticed that they are popping up everywhere. You almost need a smartphone to read your favorite magazine these days. Every ad and article seems to have a mobile barcode printed next to it. Take a walk down Main Street, USA and you will find mobile barcodes in many storefront windows. Stroll through a shopping mall and you will find them in store entry ways and throughout store shelves everywhere.
Setting the standard
QR-Codes seem to be the most popular. They are square diagrams that look like they are comprised of many small little boxes. They have slightly larger solid boxes in three of the corners — it almost looks like a maze.
To read them, you need to download an app on your smartphone, and most of the QR code-reader apps are free. Some of the popular ones are RedLaser from Occipital, Scan from QR Code City, QR Reader from TapMedia, LTD, Nokia Reader from Nokia, and i-nigma Reader from i-nigma.
For you, it’s not important which reader is used, except for the fact that most readers can only read one type of code, their own.
There are some open-source readers available that can read more than one code standard, and many smartphone users have already figured out how to use them.
Getting started
What’s really important is what these mobile barcodes can do for you and how you can use them in your business. To use them to your advantage, you need to be able to create them. There are many free, and not-so-free, mobile barcode generators; most people prefer the free ones.
The generators are the software tools that create those cute little icons. Once you decide which standard you want to use, you can easily download an app that creates the 2D mobile barcodes and you can start creating them. When you create a mobile barcode image, it is saved as a graphic file, like a .gif, .jpeg, or .png file. You can attach the file to emails or upload them to a website just like any other graphic image.
You can also use them in print to include them on letterhead, invoices, window displays, billboards, advertisements, mailings, counter posters, showroom posters, and business cards. The list is endless; I think you get the point.
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