These barcodes are not those Google was celebrating back in October. That marked the 57th anniversary of the first patent on the bar code.
Its inventors were Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who filed the patent in October 1949, which was granted in October 1952. The original patent suggested encoding data in circles (a bulls eye pattern), so that it could be scanned in any direction.
Now Google has moved on to squaring that circle and is offering stickers bearing Google’s logo and a QR code. QR stands for Quick Response.
What could be easier. Your phone must be able to scan a QR code with its camera, either with an application that you download or via software that’s already installed on your phone.
When you see a QR code, you can then use your phone’s application to scan it. If you’re scanning a QR code on one of the window decals that Google has sent to thousands of U.S. businesses, you’ll quickly be taken to that business’ mobile Place Page on Google.
This is a way in which Google is promoting its local business listings in storefronts around the U.S. with QR codes.
Stickers have been distributed to 100,000 of the most popular businesses in Google’s Local Business Center database. Starting this week consumers will be able to use code-scanning applications on modern phones to look up the Google listing for a particular restaurant, store, or dry cleaner. The stickers will be prominently displayed in store windows of participating businesses, and represent a shot across the bow of companies like Yelp which offer similar branded services.
As Bill Slawski points out there is one question that needs to be asked. Why would Google rely upon stickers for a system like this instead of using something like Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) information, or cell phone triangulation, or some other method that would avoid the need to use your phone’s camera to take an actual picture?
According to a Google patent just filed, GPS systems have some limitations, such as:
- Subscription to a GPS navigation system may be expensive, and difficult to use
- GPS Functionality requires unobstructed skyward views, which may not be possible in some places, like metropolitan areas with skyscrapers
- Privacy concerns with GPS may keep some people from using a device that permits precise tracking of their location without their consent
Barcodes stickers are not limited to just the windows of businesses. They could also be located on the pavement of parking lots or on signs associated with those lots, near the entrance to an office building, on a traffic light pole, at or near the base of a monument, or in many other places. … and of course they can be of any size. It’s all just another way that mobile world is becoming so very much easier.
