This guest post was supplied by Michelle Ryan. TechDrink editor Ben Greenwood has this to say about QR codes:
In my experience, QR codes haven’t really taken off in the UK in an advertising sense. Although some companies continue to use them on their billboard advertising and in newspapers and magazines I do not believe they see much success from them. However, Michelle’s article highlights some very good – and previously unknown to me – uses of QR codes. The black and white squares may not be the passing fad I first thought they were…
QR codes are one of the latest technologies which are trending lately and have become very popular in many businesses. QR Codes is a shortened version for quick response codes. They often appear in the form of a two-dimensional matrix of codes. For commercial websites these codes appear in the form of black square dots as a matrix on white background. Some of the areas in which QR codes are used include supermarkets, commercial websites, software development firms, the education sector and the automotive firms where they are used to track parts in the manufacture of vehicles.
Uses in software development firms
Any Software firm have to produce software that is error-free. The error detection phase of software development is one of the most critical phases. If this stage is not done carefully, the consequences can be disastrous. For large and complex software, the stage of detecting errors can be time-consuming and expensive. QR codes help to improve the efficiency of the firm and the entire process. These firms can analyze the codes that make up the software with the help of static code analysis without executing the software. Static code analysis helps the software developers to track errors in the software.
Uses in commercial websites
These websites use the QR Codes for advertising in order to help increase the revenue. They do so by increasing hits on their home pages, Facebook fanpages, twitter and YouTube. When clicked, these codes link the visitors to the specific web pages where they can view videos, access videos, music or surveys. In some cases, the visitors of a website may not know what to expect from a QR code and on clicking the QR Code, they are directed to another page and may be aroused by the new page. If these visitors start clicking on the advertising links on the new page, then the website that directed them gets a share of the revenue. If used properly, the QR codes can help affiliate marketers to increase their income significantly.
