Ok, so I think this is pretty cool. Microsoft introduced a Beta (in testing) project back in January 2009. They created new technology using barcodes, similar to those you might find on products in the grocery store. These bar-codes can be placed on fliers, on the back of business cards, on the back of packaging or in your store somewhere. You can create them to hold data that when snapped with your camera on your smart phone, you can be taken to a website, see an advert, view a video, or download your online business card directly to the phone!

The first step, in order to actually click on these bar-codes is to download the tag reader from the Microsoft website. Or, download it from your phone browser using this link: http://gettag.mobi This will download the application to your smart phone (which must have a camera). Next, you need a tag to snap! Using the Tag Reader application you downloaded, you will simply click a picture of the bar-code tag in the image below. My BlackBerry phone needed a bit of patience and practice when snapping the image. My husbands Sprint HTC Touch Pro 2 phone didn’t even need me to click the camera, it zoomed in and found the image on it’s own, pretty cool!

Creating the tags is pretty easy. You must create an account, or you can use your MSN Live account and log in with that if you already have one. Once you are logged in, you can start creating tags. It allows you determine what will happen when someone snaps your tag. Do you want it to go out to a website (as the one above will), dial a number that you can set up with some kind of advertisement or 1-800 number with information, or even download your business card to their address book!

As you can see on the tag above, you can customize the tags with your own images and include them in the bar-code. Clicking on the tag above will download my vCard (business card) directly to your address book! The possibilities are endless! Although this is relatively new, companies are catching on to the technology. Microsofts website shows Pilsbury and General Mills using tags on some of their fliers, and Xbox and Best Buy have used them also. They can be used to send information about new products, generate hype about up coming events, or send information to customers in a fun and unique way.

How could you envision incorporating this into your business? Can you see it catching on, or a need for this method of distributing data? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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