H&M stores in Europe have already started putting barcodes in magazines and on billboards so that customers can take a pic of items with their cellphone cameras and get more product info later.
Google's new 2D barcodes may be a bit different, but they basically have the same outcome. Webmaster Tips reports that these new barcodes, which have already been spotted in Japan, contain info that can prompt your phone's web browser to go to a certain URL. So say for instance you wanted to know more about a new laptop, just take a picture with your cell phone and it will direct you to the product's website — neat, right?! Source
BDL by Ben de Lisi
Claudio Merazzi
Dina Bar-El
I'm off to Japan in a few days, so I'll have to keep my eye out for that!
1I've seen it in Japan 3 years ago. It is actually very good. McDonald's Japan have those bar codes printed in the paper of the meal so you can go direct to the nutrition facts of each burger.
2Pretty common everywhere in Japan....Every brand in Japan has those bars.....
If I rememeber, the Cue Cat did something like this a long long time ago.
3They're called QR codes, and they're great! Almost every place has them, from McDonald's where you can download the coupons (it's funny watching a group of teens pass their phone to the cashier) to city bus schedules. I heard on gizmodo that the Google bar codes are slightly different, but I welcome progress. If only we could get true 3G. (sigh)
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