Microsoft pushes Tags against QR Codes
QR codes were relatively unknown until about six months ago when Google incorporated a QR code reader into its mobile phone software. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has begun pushing its own alternative, a multi-coloured coding system which it has dubbed the Microsoft Tag.
Invented back in 1995, Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) are a two dimensional bar code which hold 250 characters of information, enough to encode a website address and a phone number. The idea that Google picked up on with its Android phones is that businesses, for example, can print these codes onto their adverts or display them in their shop windows so that mobile broadband users can scan the code using the phone's built-in camera and instantly get more information about the business. The QR codes have been used on Pepsi bottles, concert tickets, and even featured in a recent episode of CSI. But now Microsoft is pushing its own rival standard.
The Microsoft Tag (more formally known as a High Capacity Colour Barcode) uses coloured triangles instead of the black squares of QR codes. It actually invented these tags back in 2007 and applications to read them have been available for more than a year, but only recently has Microsoft sought to tie them into its mobile phone platform, the same way that Google has with QR Codes.
The key difference between the two in terms of implementation is that Google uses the QR Code to embed a website address, whilst Microsoft is using Tag to embed a unique number, and the application needs to refer to a server at Microsoft to convert that number into a URL. Microsoft says that this approach allows them to collect statistics on the code usage, so that they can tell code owners how often their codes are being scanned, where, and by who. And of course, it ensures they will always be at the hub of any future usage of the system and best placed to make money out of it.
So rather like VHS and Betamax, we've gone for some time without needing either system, and now we have two standards both vying for attention and will probably see some businesses adopting one or the other just for the novelty value and the press coverage it will bring. I predict it is only a matter of time before someone prints them on T-shirts and invents QR Code Speed Dating.
28th June 2010
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