Why making mobile barcodes for facebook is a good idea

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

I've recently become a big fan of facebook. I'm one of those old guys who became familiar only in the past 6 months. It's fun because one by one my friends from past lives are signing up and finding me. We don't always have a lot to say, but I am certain my contact information won't get lost when the next high school reunion roles around.

I think there is a match between facebook and mobile barcodes because it is not always easy to find people. I have a pretty common name, and people from high school may not know where I went to college, where I now live, what my married name might be, etc.

Imagine the high school reunion scenario where I've come across someone and I don't want to lose touch again: "Just look me up on facebook, John Smith." How would you even articulate which John Smith you are?

So check out this code. It's a web code that points to my facebook mobile web profile (btw, you can navigate to facebook on your mobile at m.facebook.com). Someone I want to reach me will scan this code, which reaches my profile site. If we are not already friends, then the person can add me as a friend. If we are already friends, then you go directly to my profile.

Here is the rub, and I'm hoping someone out there can help: It's kind of a pain to make: Here are the steps:

1. Get a friend to navigate to their own facebook page on the mobile, sign in, and then view your page. Write down the web address as it appears in your friend's mobile phone.

2. Navigate to scanlife (http://www.scanlife.com/) on a browser and set up a personal account. Create a web code and type in the URL you previously wrote down. Then publish the code.

It's step one that I think can improve. Problem is, there is a wireless web address that is different from the regular web address, and the profile address (when someone else navigates to your site) is different from the address when you yourself navigate to it. I've had a hard time predicting what the wireless web address will be.

There are applications that can be developed by people more adept than me. Seems like it would be easy for facebook or someone else to invent a utility for high school reunion goers to stay connected. Is this not a worthy cause?

Mobile Barcodes in retail

Items for sale in retail stores tend to have 1-d barcodes on their packages. 1-d codes are those closely-packed vertical lines of varying thickness, so called because a scanner need only read horizontally. Traditionally they have been placed their for use at checkout, or for use by clerks managing inventory.

Some new phones and new applications have come along that extend the scanning experience to consumers. Armed with the right phone and the right software, consumers can use the codes in ways never intended by the manufacturer or the retailer.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/stores_clueless_about_mobile_barcode_scanning_applications.php#comment-118883

The most obvious purpose is for a consumer to price compare an item on a shelf: scan the code on the shelf and find all the other physical and electronic merchants who might sell the item for less.

Services like this have been around for years but have been limited by the inconvenience of entering the barcode manually into a webform on your phone. It's an exciting demonstration of the way mobile barcode scanning can unlock new and unpredicted experiences.

So what's the downside here? First, at least in the US, 1-d barcodes can be read only by the most advanced phones, so the comparison shopping experience is available only to a small portion of consumers. Second, it creates a purpose for a barcode that never previously existed, and is unintended from the product manufacturer and the retailer's point of view. The article points out the awkward stance taken by several retailers.

I don't think it is appropriate or possible or healthy to prevent consumers from comparison shopping. But I also think retailers and manufacturers can and should claim a voice for themselves through this channel. IMHO, the way for them to accomplish this goal is to negotiate with the people making and distributing the scanning software.

Scanning software has two general functions: Turn the code symbol into a number, and do something with that number. retailers/manufacturers should interact with the scanning software guys to influence the second part of this equation. The influence could vary between providing the complete experience, to ensuring high placement in search results.

Enhancing the connection between print and electronic media

"Physical World Connection" is a term frequently used when describing the value of mobile barcodes. The idea is that anything in the physical world can be tagged and associated with information about it, probably stored in electronic form. The connector is the barcode because it provides the means of accessing precise information about a physical world thing.

Barcodes are uniquely positioned to be an effective physical world connector, primarily because there are so many of them. There is potentially infinite supply of codes; therefore, an infinite number of physical objects can be tagged.

This article reviewing the mobile versions of well known newspapers is an interesting example:

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20081202/WIRELESS/812029997/-1/ALL. I've created a code that links to the front page of the New York Times. Give it a scan!

Now imagine this code posted on the front page of today's NYT. I want to read it but I have to leave the physical paper behind for some reason. I scan the code and immediately have mobile access to much the same content.

Pretty good you say, but how can it be even better? I'll describe that in the next entry.

Every now and then I hope to present some ideas why regular people might want to publish their own barcodes. As a blogger I'm trying to get as many people as possible to read my stuff. Lots of factors go into driving traffic (believe me, I'm not very good at it yet!), but one factor could be to make it really easy for people to read it wherever they are. My original thought was, why not guide people towards the opportunity to read my blog from their cell phone?

The code presented here points to http://mobilebarcodesrock.blogspot.com/, the web address of my blog. Perfect! I could say to readers, "Look, if you want to extend your reading experience to the cellphone, just scan this here code from your computer screen, and immediately the mobile version of my blog will load to your cell phone. You could continue reading something you don't have time to read right now, or even better, you could bookmark this wireless web address on your phone, so that you could conveniently come back from your mobile again and again.

For this to take off even faster, blog hosting companies could enable widgets to appear in margins of blogs so that bloggers could choose to present them. In the meantime, bloggers can create their own by going to www.scanlife.com

The Importance of Ubiquity

Ubiquity is an important consideration when considering a mobile barcode scanning solution. It is important to you, the consumer/user, because when you see a code on a piece of paper you want to be able to know that your phone can interpret it. It is important to the person or company putting the code out there because they want the confidence that their intended audience can interpret the code.

Ubiquity is a tricky beast because not all phones are alike. Some iconic phones, like the Apple iPhone for instance, can do some amazingly nifty things that most other phones can't. It needs applications--maybe even for barcodes--that can take advantage of its special capabilities. But when it comes to reach, it only accesses a small portion of the overall audience.

A solution that works "well enough" on as many phones as possible is vastly preferable. Take text messaging for instance. You need a data-capable phone, but this is a large and increasing number of handsets in the market. It is valuable mainly because you can assume your buddy can read the message you send, no matter what kind of phone and phone network it runs.
So as you choose to publish a code--whether you are an individual or a company--it's important to understand specifically how many handsets in your target audience codescanning works for. And you should also understand the definition of "works." Some companies will try to deceive you in this category.

Where will the Big Bang Come From?

A lot of people think there needs to be a big bang to mobile barcode scanning going in the United States. When pressed, they say it will require large investments by a lot of companies.
This may be true, but where will such investment come from, and what will be the nature of the investement? I think there are a good number of companies making investments in mobile barcode scanning infrastructure. This includes development of codescanning readers, code creation interfaces, standards development, and so on. Although there is a lot of squabbling among them, this area seems to be coming along.

The concern seems to come from the lack of investment from phone companies. In Japan the phone companies invested in making handset readers on lots of phones, and then invested in consumer education. In the US I believe that phone companies will make the readers available widely, but they may not actively market the capability.

Concern also seems to come from lack of investment from brands. More brands (like Ralph Lauren, see http://about.ralphlauren.com/mobile/?camp=AVEA_Search_Google_BroadRLBrandMobile) could take an active role in education, and then use mobile barcodes in their campaigns. Unfortunately most brands are less intrepid, and will probably choose to wait until codescanning is well established. But when will that be?
The old reliable "last resort" is viral marketing. What can be done to convince consumers--especially kids, let's admit it--to think of codes as cool? I'm going to try and explore some ideas over the coming few posts and solicit some feedback. I welcome your ideas...

By the way, did you figure out that the code in the previous post was a link to ESPN's mobile website? Links to mobile content could be a good way to use mobile barcodes.

How to Get Started

Okay, I'm going to alienate some of you right now by recommending the Scanbuy reader. Other readers may be technically superior and other readers have some whiz-bang features. Remember, I'm US-centric here, and I want to be democratic. The Scanbuy reader works on more phones than other readers in the US. The big reason for this is that Scanbuy is getting the carriers involved. In the US carriers can prevent readers from working on a lot of phones. Scanbuy is working with the telecommunications carriers to work in as many places and on as many phones as possible.

I'm not saying this will alway be true, but it is definitely true right now. My goal is to get people comfortable using mobile barcodes right now. We'll let time take care of itself.
I'll probably venture to discuss other readers and technologies and capabilities from time to time and try to be fair about them. But just keep in mind: US-Centric, and Democratic.
If you want to scan codes, you need codescanning software. Some will say you don't need software on your handset--and they would be right--but the experience without the software is vastly inferior to the experience of handset based solutions.

To get the software for your phone, send a text message to "70734" with the word "scan" in the body. You can also point your phone's browser to "getscanlife.com." My experience is that the process to download the software from this point on is pretty straight forward.

If you aren't used to using applications on your phone, it's sometimes hard to find it. A lot of times it is under a category called "applications," or "my stuff" or something like that. In the list of presented logos you are probably looking for an image that looks a little bit like this symbol below.

Once you've finished the process, try this code out with your newly downloaded reader!

The Barcode Reading Experience

I'm hoping this will end up being a place for people to experience barcode scanning. As such, I'll try to walk people through doing it. I apologize in advance because I will have a particularly American bias. I'll also have a particularly democratic bias. The experiences I convey will focus on what is possible on as many phones as possible. I'll rely on your feedback to understand how the experience works on your phone and your network.

Consumer Barcode Scanning is Coming of Age

This blog is about mobile barcode scanning for consumers. I happen to be an American and the whole idea is pretty new to us. More and more of us are becoming aware that this phenomenon has been going for years in Japan and for a lesser time in Europe. There are some good things and some bad things about both of those. I'm going to try and get you to comment on them all and have a meaningful dialogue.