Google has recently added QR code integration to its URL shortener, Goog.gl. People using the URL shortener can now have a custom QR code, making it easy to access the link by scanning it with your phone. How this is easier than clicking a link, I don’t know, but it could prove to have its benefits.
Google released their own open-sourced barcode scanner a while back, and integrated its functions with Android. Currently, the only way to link to an Android application on the market is to use a QR code, which is a very helpful way of finding an application if you don’t want to deal with the Market’s bad application search. It also comes in handy when there’s an application not currently on the Market, and scanning the QR will send you to a direct download of the application from the website.
While QR codes are not as common in the US as say, Japan, they are surely picking up steam. Airlines are using QR codes for boarding passes, and there’s even talk of Facebook integrating the codes to their location-based services. The mass adoption of QR codes here in the US could be around the corner, but it will take someone, like Google, to make some see why they can be useful, and why they should consider the technology.
Many of us at IntoMobile have QR codes, as well as Microsoft Tag reader codes on our business cards, and I expect that to be one of the areas that QR code adoption to take off. Over at CTIA, many cards were lacking these kind of codes, which isn’t a bad thing, but scanning a code and automatically adding someone’s information is much less tedious than manually typing someone’s information into your mobile device. This is why I still have a stack of business cards collecting dust, that I have no intentions of adding to my phone anytime soon. Sorry guys!
If you want to check out what Google has done, go through the Google Toolbar, or Feedburner, as the official Goog.gl homepage says that it is not available for “broad consumer use.”
[Via: TechCrunch]