Friday, February 09, 2007

Google To Incorporate Barcodes For Mobile Search?

We are getting close to seeing a major portal introduce a 2d code creating site.

I expect Google to buy a 2d code application company and introduce a site (beta) that allows advertisers and consumers to create 2d codes.

The big battle from mobile search is coming, and Microsoft already unveiled their barcode reading application.

RSS feeds and "widgets" are really just modified hyperlinks for the digital world. They allow an easier way to access a website/information on the Web. 2d codes offer that same easy ability to access website/information on the Net, but for physical world objects.

A 2d code, or physical world hyperlink, will allow anyone with a camera phone to scan any physical object (magazine, poster, brochure, bus stop, business card etc) with one of these codes, and access the Internet for more information.

From IT Pro Google readies itself for mobile search face off

As reported by IT PRO, Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchinson Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular - are secretly planning joining forces on mobile search. And as mobile searches can be targeted to specific locations, the potential revenue from these searches could be huge.

D-J Collins, head of corporate communication at Google UK said that the company was also building partnerships with a broad range of companies and this would see a lot of innovation in mobile search as a result.

He said the market for mobiles was more advanced in countries such as the UK or Japan and people used their phones in innovative ways. This meant that the company had to employ engineers who had knowledge of mobile networks and a deep understanding of what the local market wanted.

"Because the mobile experience in Japan is so advanced you have to be ingrained in the local culture," said Collins. "People in Japan use mobiles to barcode products, if you are an engineer in Norway you might not know that."

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Now that mobile phone manufacturers are starting to embed barcode reading applications on the phone, mobile search and mobile marketing players must find a way to utilize this "tool".

Mobile phone manufacturers will not add a device/application unless there is a growing demand for it, AND there is an "infrastucture" built to accomodate it.
Pondering Primate
The "infrastructure" is/are a website(s) that allow ANYONE to create a 2d code and use them on any physical object to link a mobile phone to the Internet.

Look at how quickly and easily content grows with Google's Blogger, or the other blog sites. By allowing anyone on the Net (corporation or consumer) to create 2d codes, Google will be establishing even more ways to access this rapidly growing content, BUT from a mobile device.

One of the largest databases on the Net will soon merge with the physical world and be linked via the mobile phone using physical world hyperlinks.

What company has perfected the combination of finding information on the Net and providing relevant advertising?

Isn't the next logical step offering the same ability for the mobile?

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