I have been a fan of QR Codes for some time. QR Codes look like bar codes and communicate information about a person or a home or a product — simply by taking a photo of the QR Code with your cell phone.
A real estate firm had used QR codes on home For Sale signs. Although QR codes widely used in Japan, they are rarely used in the U.S. to bridge the gap between print and the online world.
Perhaps it will change. With Microsoft Tag.
Microsoft will create a colorful visual tag for you to store your information. Once someone photographs the tag with their cell phone they get your info. The tag reader is available for a lot of phones. I easily downloaded Microsoft Tag for my Blackberry… and used it with no problem.
While attending the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World great convention in Las Vegas, where I had the pleasure of speaking, I met Carpenter Realtors who was using Microsoft Tags on his home For Sale signs AND business cards.
The Microsoft tag on the For Sale sign gave me all the information about the home. Shooting his business card recorded all his contact information (phone number, email, address, etc) in my cell phone address book. That was useful.
You can even create custom Microsoft tags and use it them in any kind of print advertising.
While Microsoft’s Tag is colorful and easy to use, the problem appears most folks need to take a little effort to download the system to their phone. Time will tell if this catches on.
Video here. Microsoft video demo here (why you can’t copy it is odd). Microsoft Tag blog here. (they have a $5000 contest in Austin til March 15)
Technorati Tags: microsoft tag, qr codes, for sale signs, real estate marketing
