Updated: July 13, 2020 (June 7, 2010)
Analyst ReportMobile Barcode Platform Launches
The Microsoft Tag platform lets organizations create simple graphical images that users can scan with mobile phones to trigger an action, such as launching a Web site. The platform will probably be most useful to advertisers and marketing organizations to create interactive campaigns and is similar to other two-dimensional code technology, such as QR Code, which is popular in Japan and used by Google.
Easy to Create
The Tag platform was introduced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, began public beta-testing in Jan. 2009, and emerged from beta in May 2010.
An online service called the Tag Manager lets nontechnical users create special-purpose symbols in a variety of graphical formats (including GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, and WMF) for print and online use, and assign a particular action to take place when users scan these images with a mobile phone camera. Actions include loading a Web page into the smartphone’s browser, dialing a phone number, displaying a text message, and downloading a vCard with contact information. Organizations can create generic simple Tags in black and white or color, or custom Tags with graphical information, such as a corporate logo, overlaid on top of the simple Tag data. (For an example of a simple Tag, see the illustration “An Example Tag“.)
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