Wednesday, December 17, 2008





To try these codes out on your own phone, text the word "scan" to 70734, or navigate on your phone to getscanlife.com


I'm old enough to have teenagers and I've decided to get them to give me ideas that I can share with all of you. This one came from them but equally valuable for all of us, for different reasons. For me, my memory is slipping. For them, they're just careless.

I told a friend of mine about this idea and he said it should be branded "Dude, where's my car?" here's the idea: You pull into a parking lot, at work, at a mall, at a sports event, etc. The main idea is the parking lot is big and it won't be immediately obvious where you parked.

When you park your car, before you walk in, you scan this code. it immediately takes you to a wireless web page with a map where your car is. The map URL is unique to your spot, and uniquely associated with a unique code. Remeber, there are gazillions of codes and gazillions of URLs, therefore you can be as precise as you want to be.
When you leave and you want to figure out where you parked, launch your browser again to see where your car is parked. Or set it up the original code as an SMS code to have a response message sent to your handset with a link to a web address.

You could charge users for this service, or it could be ad supported at every stage of the process (at especially high CPMs because these ads could be location-based). Or, you could provide it for free in exchange for executing desirable behaviors, such as stopping by a particular desk for "validation." You could actually withhold the view of the map until such validation is obtained. An entrepreneur could sell this solution to a mall, shopping center, or to a large corporation.

Okay, another good idea, delivered free of charge to all you entrepreneurs out there. I tell you, I'm printing money for you!

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