Myne

Questicon makes use of QR

       

We recently spotted that Canberra's interactive science and technology centre Questicon is making use of QR codes to provide more information to browsers. It's especially relevant since QR codes are themselves a subject for one particular exhibit called Perception Deception.

This is an application that we've talked about a lot.

It's a great way of connecting to more detailed content providing the back story, if you will. It also means that users can walk away with referenceable content after the fact - very useful indeed.

However in this case I just felt that the reward just wasn't strong enough. That is, the experience didn't really add anything. I think when used in these situations QR must link to content that provides more value - greater utility or entertainment. Think video content, location-based tools, mobile vouchers and so on.

Nevertheless good on you Questicon for getting stuck in, and my kids really enjoyed the exhibit. This is a must visit attraction in Canberra if you have kids by the way.

Google Place Rank and QR Codes

Really loved this Techcrunch post - Google has just snail-mailed 190,000 top local businesses with a qr code linking to content about the location. Retailers in turn can enable their local business center listing to display a coupon to turn casual browsers into action at the till.

Its great to see this smart use of the technology. Google has just made a giant leap towards establishing QR in the US market. Australia feels like a much better location to have trialled this with much greater QR awareness and penetration, yet I haven't we seen any retailers doing this yet off their own bat.

Time perhaps to at least trial it.

Another important concept we should all be aware of: The notion of Place Rank - an extension of Google Juice (page rank: a measure of how important a web page is) into the physical world. It's been around since 2007, but not that talked about. Detailed description here.