What are QR Codes?

Looks like a bad abstract painting eh?

QR codes are a lot like the bar codes you'd find on the back of a can of soup. They can contain a ton of information but only if you know how to read that information. Luckily, anyone with a fancy smartphone like an iPhone or Blackberry has the ability to read them. 

So why should you care?

Well, these QR codes can be used to do some pretty neat things. When you scan a QR code with your smartphone it returns information back in the form of any of the following:

• a text message
• a calendar event
• a URL
• contact information
• an SMS
• a geo-location
• a phone number
• a wifi network

Imagine that a customer walks into a store, looks and the shelf and sees your product. They're not sure whether they want to buy it or not so they scan the QR code which then takes them to a webpage full of glorious reviews of your product. Or maybe they walk into a store only to find that they're all out of the style they want.  They then scan the QR code on a different style which then takes them to a website outlining which stores currently have that style in stock. There are a ton of possibilities. You just have to be creative. You could even use them just to send a secret messages to your friends, your boss, or the KGB. 

Now, you'll need to have a QR Code Scanner app on your smartphone to read them but most of these are free and easy to get (search for QR Code Scanner on your Blackberry App World of iPhone App Store). 
Once you have the app, it'll use your phone's camera feature to take a picture of the code. You click a button to take the picture and it'll instantly return something back to you.

Creating and using a QR code is super easy and best of all FREE! 

(no licensing required)

There are a few websites out there with QR code generators but I found this one to be the simplest: http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/ .   I recommend downloading a QR Scanner App and play around generating different codes to see they're effect. I think the most useful one though is the ability to have someone get directed right to your website or a specific page on your website.

QR Codes are definitely something to consider sticking on your packaging, advertisements, website, or wherever. They're a free and simple way to engage customers in a tech-savvy way.

Neat eh?