There's a whole website dedicated to this http://wtfqrcodes.com/
Along with this blog: http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
Enough with the QR Codes
41–50 of 76 posts
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, in this case it was the creating of QR codes for printing. Don't worry, I did laugh pretty hard right in front of them and told them that it's easy to make them absolutely free - ah well, they'd already paid at this point.
Well you can still track how many people scan it, right ? e.g. by providing a proxy link ?
Yeah sure - plenty of people do QR codes that go through bit.ly, just as possible to do it through any other tracking platform.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
The real WTF is... Almost free? Like, they found a company that will, what, sell you an image of black and white boxes for mere pennies? God, imagine the money they could make swindling companies with a per-scan advertising fee! Pixels will be mined like gold! Apparently nobody in Corporate has heard of a free online barcode generator. You can even print the barcode as many times as you want! Maybe they just do not t…
I imagine it's the tracking and statistics provided by paid services that is the really useful point from business point of view. Marketing people love response tracking.
As, indeed, they should. If you don't track something, how do you know if it's effective? Measure everything you can.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#44I do believe I've found a decent use for them - I wrote an app that can push an iOS mobile provisioning wifi profile to an iPhone - this allows your guests to scan a QR code to have their iOS device connect to your wifi network (without directly sharing your WPA key with them). You can even geofence the QR code so that if it is scanned > 1/2 mile from your home, the profile will not be pushed. You must use RedLaser t…
FYI: There is an app for Android doing the same (works great): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proj.wifij...
I printed Marvin the Paranoid Android pointing to a fat QR code with extra text saying sth like 'internets r here... and ur emailz, too.'
One of the best QR code use cases, I believe.
edit: User must have app installed on her phone.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#45I do believe I've found a decent use for them - I wrote an app that can push an iOS mobile provisioning wifi profile to an iPhone - this allows your guests to scan a QR code to have their iOS device connect to your wifi network (without directly sharing your WPA key with them). You can even geofence the QR code so that if it is scanned > 1/2 mile from your home, the profile will not be pushed. You must use RedLaser t…
FYI: There is an app for Android doing the same (works great): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.proj.wifij... I printed Marvin the Paranoid Android pointing to a fat QR code with extra text saying sth like 'internets r here... and ur emailz, too.' One of the best QR code use cases, I believe. edit: User must have app installed on her phone.
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Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#46My educational startup uses them in our printed assignments. Teachers fax completed tests to us and we can grade them by identifying the assignment through QR.
Example: http://kiteedu.com/assets/print.jpg
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#47QR Codes remind me of the CueCat. There are some interesting and perfectly valid use cases, but I doubt QR Codes will be something that most people ever start using on a daily basis.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#48This intense hatred of QR Codes continues to baffle and amaze me. Sure, if you use them inappropriately it's a disaster but if you can add something which potentially makes it easier for those with phones to access, then why not?
It's almost like complaining about the over-usage of barcodes on product packaging.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#49I see people scan QR codes often, and even occasionally do myself; but then, I live in Japan.
Here, QR codes became popularized well before the 'smartphone', because everybody's regular phone has been able to scan them for years. (I think from around the turn of the millennium, at least.) That makes sense, because as as bad as smartphone on-screen keyboards are, entering URLs on a numeric keypad was even worse.
Two days before the OP's blog entry, I just happened to write a note on my own blog in defense of QR codes (not exactly Pulitzer-grade material; see my profile if you're really interested).
That was just because recently it seems to have gotten really trendy in the USA to hate on QR codes, but I think that's like hating on hammers. ("Enough with the hammers!") What people are really hating on (I think) is clumsy and stupid marketing involving QR codes.
Japan went through a similar thing: as QR codes became popular, marketers got all over-exuberant about them and started inappropriately plastering them all over the place, thinking they looked cool. That gradually fizzled out; Japan Inc. has a recent article about it:
http://www.japaninc.com/node/4018
But just because advertisers over-use and abuse QR codes, that doesn't mean QR codes aren't useful. A small barcode that can be scanned with the device that everybody already has in their pocket is a cool thing, and QR codes are nearly that. Especially here.
We don't see them as much in ads in Japan anymore (a mock-Google search box showing what to google for has replaced the QR code in a lot of places). But we still use them in everyday life, and to good effect. Kids snap shots of QR codes to get discount coupons for fast food. Shops have a QR code that will direct you to a Google map of the surrounding area whosing their other locations in the vicinity. One of my favorites examples is when a friend was trying to fix his kitchen; one of the pipes underneath had a metal tag stamped with a part number and QR code, which led to the product spec page from the vendor that made it (loooong URL).
I have more, but you get the point, and it's miller time.
Re: Enough with the QR Codes
#50Reposting my comment from the blog, because it's still "awaiting moderation".
QR Codes do have uses, but everyone uses them wrong. The first and most obvious use is as a replacement barcode. Add to physical products to expand scanning use-cases. But not as a marketing stunt.
The next, which I quite like is for device -> device communication. For example displaying a QR code on your phone and having it automatically scanned at a ticket collection point for Airplanes/Trains/Events.