QR Codes -or- What is that thing...???

It is just simply amazing... First you saw them but had no idea of what they were. Maybe you noticed them on odd things (cell phone batteries, credit card statements, that sort of thing). They have been used for years although they are just really catching on now. Yes I'm referring to that wonderful little square if info the QR code. QR codes store addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hard linking or object hyper linking.

Google's mobile Android operating system supports QR codes by naively including the bar code scanner (ZXing) on some models, and the browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR codes to send meta data to existing applications on the device. Nokia's Symbian operating system is also provided with a bar code scanner, which is able to read QR codes, while barcode is a QR code reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple OS, a QR code reader is not included,but over 50 free apps are available with reader and meta data browser URI redirection ability. As for BlackBerry devices, the App World application can natively scan QR codes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser.

Recently, QR codes have become more prevalent in marketing circles and have been integrated into both traditional and interactive campaigns. Media where QR codes have been deployed include: billboard ads, guerrilla marketing campaigns, in-store displays, event ticketing and tracking, trade-show management, business cards, print ads, contests, direct mail campaigns, websites, email marketing, and coupon-ing just to name a few. QR codes are of particular interest to marketers, giving them the "ability to measure response rates with a high degree of precision" allowing for easier ROI (return on investment) calculation, thus helping justify spending on marketing budgets. QR codes have also been used at trade shows and in conferences.

The use of these codes seem limitless, some QR Codes can hold up to 4,296 characters. So holding all of your info that you can you have for a web address is no problem.