Last week I wrote an article about QR Codes that predicted they would become ubiquitous in the not too distant future. At least they are today in Japan, the country that invented them. Little did I know that just a couple of days later, I would be browsing the Android Market and stumble upon an app called the Microsoft Tag Reader. Curious, I downloaded it and started playing with it on my Droid X. At first I thought it might be just another run of the mill barcode reader. I was wrong.
I started searching the internet for information about Microsoft Tags, I quickly came to tag.microsoft.com. This is a new website for Microsoft’s latest invention that competes directly with QR Codes—the Microsoft Tag. Are you curious to know what a Tag is? So was I!
I downloaded the Microsoft Tag Implementation Guide. Here is an excerpt from the overview section:
Tag is a high-capacity color barcode (HCCB) with encoded information. Organizations and individuals can create specific Tags by using the Microsoft Tag Manager Web service. When the Microsoft Tag Reader application is installed on a mobile device, the Tag Reader can be used to scan a Tag using the device’s built-in camera. When a Tag is scanned by the Tag Reader, the information encoded into the Tag becomes available on the mobile device.
Here’s an example of a Microsoft Tag I created using their web service:
Pretty, isn’t it? According to Microsoft:
Microsoft Tag lets you seamlessly connect almost anything in the real world to interactive experiences from your mobile phone. Consumers scan Tags to engage at the maximum point of impact by using the device that is central to their daily lives: the mobile phone.
Print, online, TV, billboards, point-of-sale—the range of places where businesses can use a Tag is almost infinite.
Despite their claims, I thought I’d prepare a quick comparison of Microsoft Tags and QR Codes.
| Attribute | Microsoft Tag | QR Code |
| Black & White |
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| Color |
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| SMS |
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| Data Capacity | 1,000 alpha-numeric characters |
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| Phone Numbers |
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| URLS |
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| Custom Background |
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| vCard |
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| Advanced Design |
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There are other attributes we could probably compare as well, but I’ll leave it to you to do so. So which is better? I suppose it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. QR Codes were designed for industrial purposes. Microsoft Tags are designed with advertising in mind. I’ve started to see Microsoft Tags pop up on LinkedIn as people’s avatars. I haven’t scanned any yet, but I ‘m willing they probably contain the person’s vCard or advertisement for something they’re selling.
If you want to learn
more about Microsoft Tags, visit the URL above or scan the Tag below.
To download the mobile Tag reader, search your smartphone’s marketplace, visit http://tag.microsoft.com/download.aspx or scan the Tag below:
Hey Victor,
One thing misleading about QR Codes is that they can hold upwards of 7000 characters. While your numbers are correct the actual size of the QR code grows as the number of characters increases. Ultimately, none of the current phone readers (3GVision, Quickmark, etc.) can read a code that size.
As a developer using both, I can tell you that both have benfits and shortcomings. In the end, the one that provides the most utility should be the winner and even though they’ve been around forever, the party is just getting started. Even now the gnomes in Redmond still don’t realize the potential of what they’ve got – hence QR will continue to gain in the near term but just don’t count Tag out yet. MS is like a big snowball rolling downhil; albeit dumb and stupid but still big.
Should be an interesting process to watch unfold.
Hi Victor,
QR codes have come a long way, at least the open standards QR codes. The handle color, branding with logo’s and many providers are creating value added services.
MS Tags remain a proprietary closed system and though insinuating they create and read QR codes and Datamatrix codes it all goes to the same walled garden. And the reader does not support open QR and Datamatrix codes.
My vote goes for QR codes, there are are many providers, many open standard readers so for consumers it seems a better deal.
Have a look at some of the color and branding applications that are available free online you may be surprised at how fast this is moving for QR codes.
Working QR generators using color and graphics can be at http://blog.qr4.nl and http://qr.odoa.eu
Enjoy and have fun with QR codes
Hello, please note that with QR-codes you can store vcard information. Just check this web site and generate info ‘vcard alike’: http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-generator/
kr Bart Loyson @ SystemsWaves