Bridging The Divide Between Offline and Online

As more people come to find out about the uses and advantages of using QR codes in their personal and professional life, advertising agencies are also hopping around with glee with the potential that the technology brings. Many agreed that it is THE technology to watch. Just go to Google and find bloggers going aflutter in their blogs about the QR Codes that they find and managed to scan.

Quick Intro. QR Codes is a spin-off from the conventional 2D barcode that we are using today but unlike the current barcode technology, you do not need a specific (expensive) barcode scanning device to scan the code. All you need is a mobile phone, more specifically, a smart phone like the iPhone, Blackberry and other android smart phones as well. Currently, previously, when QR Code was not yet in the spotlight, manufacturers did not see a need to pre-load new phones with a QR Code reader. Now, it’s a whole different story. Not all but many of the new batches of smart phones comes with a pre-installed QR Code reader. The QR Code reader makes use of the phone’s camera to scan QR codes.

Creating a link to your website anywhere outside of the world wide web. What is exciting about it is that we now have the capability to create a link to online content. The links that we see on a browser whenever we are surfing the internet comes to life in our offline world. In essence, if you see a QR Code on a leaflet or an ad, you can scan it right there and then without having to memorize the URL. If you see a QR Code along with an article in the newspaper, scan it and you reach whatever extra content that the writer wanted to share with you.

It sure makes assessing links to websites with lenghty URLs a breeze.

Sharing your contact information. QR Codes are also used to share contact information. This may be good news to environmental activists as we move towards a greener and possibly paperless world. QR Codes are also popularly used to get people to notice promotions, special offers, discounts, membership drives and also Google Places pages.

Instead of forgetting to bring your membership card (for a discount), you have it saved right there on your cell phone (which we almost never forget to bring along with us, anywhere).

Now, dosn’t that sound enticing enough already?