Favourite Places

Google has obviously decided that despite their new MIR offering - Google Goggles - they will also continue to evangelize the QR Code format. Probably just to piss off Microsoft.

We use Google's QR Code generation API to provide QR codes for Vizitag users but now Google are going into the delivering mobile content and microsite game with their Favourite Places Initiative.

Google is evangelising the use of new 'shop window' tags, based on the QR code format, by sending out free decals to businesses that they say are among those most searched for by customers using their online Local Business Center listing service. They say they have sent out 100,000 of these decals (in the USA) so far.

Who knows? It could become a sort of retail badge of honour, like a Michelin Star for a restaurant.

Once again, we tried this in our home towns of Hove and Shaftesbury with MS tags some months ago, with minimal interest from wary shopkeepers. Despite the credit crunch, you can't even give stuff away in the UK as us Brits are bizarrely suspicious of anything free. It's probably something to do with the war.

But now that Google has weighed in, things might change. The main problem we had was patchy Internet connectivity in the town centres preventing tags from being of any use.

So if Google want to try this in the UK then perhaps they should start with Swinnon (Swindon, Wilts that is) as Swindon is apparently going wireless big time...

I also like the idea of a 'spoof' version such as a Google 'Celebrity Tag' where they send out a decal to people who are searched for most frequently on Google by name. That way Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson or somesuch can sport said tag on their Gucchi bag so you can snap the tag as they pass by for instant access to those promotional videos that have proven so popular on the Internet in the past.

Google Goggles: Tag Killer?

Mobile Image Recognition (MIR) looks certain to hit the big time now that Google have embraced the technology as part of their new visual search service called Google Goggles.

As with any MIR app you point your mobile phone camera at something - Google gives examples of landmarks, books, business cards, artworks etc. - and the image is checked against a back end database of images to resolve to some mobile content site about the subject of the image.

The big problem with MIR has always been getting enough images for this kind of visual search to have traction. But that's hardly likely to be a problem for Google. Then it's down to basic recognition smarts in the MIR software that does the heavy lifting, to ensure that even partial or obscured images can be matched against something useful.

MIR is yet another step closer to being a tag killer and another good reason to use Google's Android OS on your mobile.

Customer Service Tags

I wish TrackPlus the best of luck with evangelizing the use of QR Codes for improving customer service in retail outlets.

Almost when we first started Vizitag, we discussed using tags to provide product information with various retailers. Elevator Pitch: You put a tag by/on a product in a showroom or on a shelf so that prospective customers can snap the tag to get more information about that product without having to search out a sales assistant (who may not know anything about that product anyway). Product information self-service without lots of expensive flyers/brochures.

No brainer right?

We got no takers. The challenge, as usual, is not the technology but persuading retailers to change the way they think about how customers browse stores and get information about products. There's also the issue of penetration of tag readers on phones and educating shoppers as to what the tags are and do. But it's hardly rocket science.

You'd think with all the 'credit crunch' doom and gloom about, retailers would be jumping on ways to enhance the shopping experience. Dream on.