[JamieEi]

Here's what Microsoft says:

Microsoft Tag vs. Other 2D Codes

Linking real-world objects to deeper experiences on mobile phones started in Japan with QR Codes. Microsoft Tag provides a next-generation solution that offers many useful improvements. Tag is an end-to-end system that provides many capabilities beyond simply opening a URL, and is built upon a highly scalable and flexible architecture.

The Tag system uses a cloud-based back-end that provides access to data that just isn’t possible with earlier QR codes, such as reporting on how frequently and where your Tags are being scanned. In addition, Tags allow you to dynamically change your data source – unlike other 2D codes that are associated with a single, permanent URL, Tags can be updated as frequently as you like to point to new websites, allowing you to reuse campaign materials.

Tags can be created in a much smaller size and can be read faster and under a wider range of lighting conditions. Tags can also be customized to your brand’s specific look and feel, creating visually exciting codes that enhance your message and brand. Learn more about creating Custom Tags.

The Tag Reader application runs on all major phone platforms, and unlike older formats, every Microsoft Tag can be read by every Tag Reader, so there is no consumer confusion from incompatible solutions. Tags just work.

http://tag.microsoft.com/overview.aspx

[pedalpete]

That feature list in paragraph two is pretty weak.

Put google analytics on the page being retrieved by the tag, and you've got frequency and macro-location.

'Dynamically changing data-source?', I assume they are suggesting that the content retrieved is dynamic. Yet if the code is static, than the variables for the dynamic content aren't coming from the tag. So, again, this can be accomplished with any webpage.

The 'customized look' of the microsoft tag is probably its greatest weakness. If you look at the examples they provide, they aren't instantly recognizable as scannable tags, and they look horrible.

[joshu]

There is no way what they are talking about is a function of the tag. It is more akin to a physical URL shortened, I imagine.

[nlawalker]

Amusing aside - on iPhone, Tag Reader will automatically detect and scan the tag when you hold it in front of the lens. On Windows Phone 7, you have to press the "Scan" button to open the camera, turn off the flash (because it's on Auto by default, and unless the surroundings are very bright, taking a photo of something that close will trigger the flash and the tag will be washed out), snap a picture, and then wait a couple seconds to see if the app can read the tag. If it can't, you have to press "try again," where you get to go back to the camera, turn the flash off again, and try once more.

[kenjackson]

From the lock screen what are the steps from each device? From your description I can't tell really what is going on.

[nlawalker]

Ah, my bad.

On both platforms, you have to open the Tag Reader app. However, on iPhone, when you open the app, it puts you in the camera viewfinder. All you have to do is hold a Tag in front of the screen and the camera will detect and scan it in realtime and take you to the destination URL.

On WP7, opening Tag Reader takes you to an instruction screen with a big Scan button. Pressing Scan takes you to the camera viewfinder, where you have to snap a picture of the tag. After you snap, it processes for a second or two and then tells you if it was successful scanning the tag. If not, it opens the viewfinder again. On top of this, every time the viewfinder opens anew, the autoflash is turned on.

[kenjackson]

OK that makes sense. Fortunately for MS, this is the least of their WP7 worries right now.

[barista]

I think those limitations are from the way WP7 restricts access to the live camera view. I hope they fix that soon. A lot of cool scenarios can be unlocked if they do.

[slay2k]

"every Microsoft Tag can be read by every Tag Reader, so there is no consumer confusion"

Hah, yes, much like every ActiveX-enhanced website could have been viewed by every IE6 browser. There certainly won't be any consumer confusion, what with none of the top barcode scanning apps supporting MS Tag and all.

[gvb]

...and like "Plays For Sure."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure

[lambda]

Ha. So, they're saying that you can't use a URL shortener with analytics on a QR code? They're saying that their own system is more flexible than the URL, which anyone can put any dynamic service they want behind, rather than having to go through Microsoft? They think that you can't re-use a URL with a redirect for later campaigns?

Or maybe they're just lying through their teeth to try and sell a crappy proprietary product that will harm the entire mobile tag ecosystem for their own profit, or will fail like so many other attempts to control a market that they don't really understand just like PlaysForSure did, but probably causing some confusion and harm in the meantime.

[jodrellblank]

The Tag system uses a cloud-based back-end that provides access to data that just isn’t possible with earlier QR codes, such as reporting on how frequently and where your Tags are being scanned.

Translation: spyware.

[joshu]

More like URL shorteners.

[jodrellblank]

Sort of, but not really. A URL shortner has nothing else to do but lookup a central database and resolve a short URL into a long one. The short URL is more friendly for some formats, which is to the end user's benefit.

A QR code already encodes a URL. It can already be decoded and opened on your client with no other help or services.

The Tag equivalent sounds like a URL shortener in that it looks up a code in a central database and converts one to another, but the Tag is not shorter. It is not done for the end user's benefit, it adds nothing for the end user, in fact it adds a slow WAN lookup and all the reliability issues that go with it. It adds a third party into your data exchange for someone elses benefit.

It's more like a MITM attack on your transaction than a URL shortener.

[naner]

So if QR codes are URLs, then MS Tags are bit.ly.

[ChuckMcM]

Yes, where you give up traffic data to M$ and AT&T. I'm astonished that given that QR codes are royalty free that someone hasn't said "Oh gee, that is like a 10 minute web app", and blam.

[mkramlich]

> The Tag system uses a cloud-based back-end that provides access to data that just isn’t possible with earlier QR codes, such as reporting on how frequently and where your Tags are being scanned. In addition, Tags allow you to dynamically change your data source – unlike other 2D codes that are associated with a single, permanent URL, Tags can be updated as frequently as you like to point to new websites, allowing you to reuse campaign materials.

These statements range anywhere from lie to falsehood to sly twisting of the truth. In reality, a QR Code-based system can do all of this as well. What they're trying to confuse with is the distinction between the printed code format and a supplementary service backend that can do, well, whatever one wants it to do, with the data scanned. Microsoft has obviously arranged for one particular service to be created, presumeably to monetize in some way.

I happen to have done some personal R&D in this area in recent months. One of the things that stuck out the most about QR Codes is that they are effectively an open format, not necessarily tied to one app or vendor. Well, more of a format framework for whatever app-specific format and processing system you choose to devise. Think bar codes raised to the power of two.