Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Look out! QR codes are starting to pop up everywhere!

QR Codes At SXSW

Just last week, attendees of the highly technical South by Southwest Interactive conference found that their ID badges displayed a QR code that linked to their conference attendee page. The idea was to make it easy for people who meet face-to-face to connect digitally. In theory, you could meet someone, take a photo of their QR code, and through the magic of mobile internet technologies, now you are connected to them on the conference management software. It’s a much better way to manage contact information with the new people you meet than collecting business cards or fumbling to type it in on your cell phone.

However, the crowd didn’t embrace the QR codes with much enthusiasm. Like any new technology, there’s a certain amount of setup required. People thought it took too many steps to set up and scan QR codes, so they gave up mid-way through the process. You must have QR code software loaded on your smart phone, and then you can photograph a QR code to get the information. (For more information about how QR codes work with cell phones, see What Are QR Codes? And Why Should I Care?)

I think the QR code was a brilliant idea, but it wasn’t executed well. People needed time before the event to load the required software and practice reading codes before they arrived. In the rush of activity at an event like SXSW, it wasn’t reasonable to expect people to do the setup and experimentation on the fly. I know this from my years of teaching people how to use software. There’s a learning curve, even with the early adopter set who consider SXSW almost a religious experience.

Facebook Trying Out QR Codes

And now, there are rumors that Facebook is introducing a QR code feature that would create a QR code for your Facebook profile or page. TechCrunch received tips that broke this news, along with some screen shots showing the QR code options on a live page. They followed up with the folks at Facebook and were given a very non-committal response.

With Facebook, it seems that you can create two different QR codes, one for your profile or page address, and the other for your status updates. Reading between the lines, I’m guessing that when you create either QR code, Facebook generates the code and you can download the image file. You could then use the image file on your business cards, your restaurant’s menu, your business front door, etc. Your options are only limited by your imagination and your understanding of your business market.

If you don’t understand QR codes or why they are going to be so popular in the near future in the United States, check out these articles:

• What Are QR Codes? And Why Should I Care?
• Google Maps And QR Codes