The Emperor's New QR Code
2012-07-31 14:00:43
Like a rash of cybernetic tattoos everywhere I look there seems to be a QR code. These are the little squares of squares that show up in advertising on bus stops, shop windows, packaging, dogs, shopping bags, small children… you get the point. If you have a smartphone and a smart brain, you can take a picture and read the contents of the cryptic box of boxes.
Usually the contents are just an URL for a web page. The idea is you take a picture with your phone, visit the website, and get more information about the thing you just read about in the big poster. I suppose you could consider it bookmarking a website to read later, but I think the idea of going back and visiting a web page later adds too many steps to actually understand what the heck you’re trying to say.
Especially if what you’re trying to say is encrypted in a QR Code…
Now, wouldn’t it be cool if you could deliver a whole mess of info without forcing them to go look at a web browser? Well, you can, but who wants to translate my entire blog from a QR code? And most phones don’t expect a full 4 MB limit of data that you can shove into the format. But I can (and did) take this entire blog and put it into a QR code. Now that’s geeky cool.
But here’s what I don’t understand. Adding a QR code to an online ad. If your code just takes you to the website, why the heck would I take a picture of my computer to visit your website? That implies that my phone can even scan the thing
I suppose you might argue that someone might print the ad and later want the convenience to snap a pic of the code to visit the site, but that assumes that people who print ads are the kind of people who even know what a QR code is…
I envision the agency pitch for this one… they bring in a pop up ad display and tell the Board, “Look how easy this is!” The Board member that says, “But I don’t have a, wadyacalit? Code reader?” gets ostracized for being so uncool and unhip that he has to forfeit his bonus for the year.
Either that or it’s some kind of Satanic thing and I totally missed it.