QR codes are those funky-looking barcodes that you’ll sometimes spot on print marketing materials or even pedicabs. While QR codes do offer you a unique way to use your mobile phone camera to capture/scan the code to retrieve a message, they haven’t been embraced by the mainstream population. But can Google change that?
In an effort to beef up attention for their Place Pages project within Google Maps, which is in direct competition with Yelp, Google has started an online and offline program. The new initiative is centered around putting decals with QR codes in store windows, designed to draw your attention to the Favorite Places in your neighborhood.
Google is sending window decals to more than 100,000 U.S. businesses that they’ve identified as the most sought-after on Google and Google Maps. Much like the Yelp stickers you’re accustomed to seeing in businesses around town, these decals will appear in store windows and highlight the business’ status as a Google Favorite Place.
The decals also include prominent QR codes that you can scan with your mobile device to pull up the locale’s place page and get reviews — and possibly even coupons — for a particular establishment. At some future date, you’ll also be add a review from your phone (you can already draft a review using Yelp’s mobile app).
The problem with QR codes is that they require your mobile device to have an app that can scan the codes. iPhone owners and Android users are covered, (Google has made the iPhone app QuickMark free for a limited time), but QR codes are still a fuzzy concept for most consumers. Plus, the decal maneuver is clearly part of a catch-up scheme to usurp Yelp’s stronghold over consumer reviews. Whether or not it will be effective remains to be seen.
Watch the video below to see the decals in action:
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Via Mashable
Personal comment:
QR codes are nothing really new. Just interesting to see Google starting to map it's results in the "real world" and provide businesses with stickers to connect mobiles users to their search engine while in the streets (and of course, everybody is happy! it's a publicity in the end right?).
But watch out, it's a strong actor that enter this field of "mapping" the digital world into the physical one (and vice versa of course!)
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