Google have started selling print ads in the US, which is an interesting venture in its own right, but the most interesting thing in this example is the extent to which they’re using the ads to drive potential customers online.
Aside from the URLs in the ad, we’re also encouraged to search Google for specific search terms (doubtless incredibly well optimised for this advertiser). There’s also a QR code, or 2-d bar code, which is a machine readable image that contains a link or other information. The software to read these isn’t widely available yet, but the more organisations like Google support them, the more people will install the software. Next year, a large number of phones will probably have the QR code reader installed at the factory, so we can expect use of QR codes to become a lot more common.
Thanks to Blognation for the story.
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One Comment
1. If Google thought this out, why wouldn’t they want to control revenue from both a direct and indirect system?
Why not offer the brands, their customers, the option of both worlds? Why? Brands could change their offering without changing the code on their product.
Why not offer a mobile reader that lets the consumer click on multiple types of codes and other things.
IMO, the NeoReader offers the end to end solution for consumers.
Google needs to take another look at mobile interaction. Why? There are more than just codes to click on. What happens when I walk down the street and there are no codes to click on? What if I say the restaurant name into the browser? What about RFID? What about keywords, logos, trademarks?
If Google wants to offer the best, end to end for the consumer, they need to offer direct and indirect solutions for their customers and the ability to click on multiple types of symbologies, and keywords, logos, trademarks, RFID, from the mobile device.
IMO, they are a smart group, they need to think about what they want to offer their customers and what they can do for the end user. Anything less would be worthless to the consumer.
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