Microsoft Pulls a Facebook Connect With Their Mobile “Tag” Technology

I was up very late last night and just before I shut down for the evening, I noticed a post by Mr. CES Robert Scoble pointing to a new launch by Microsoft called "Tag". Since that time, there have been over 60 comments discussing the Tag on Scoble’s post. If you regularly read CN, you know how much of a fan I am of QR Codes. There’s an example of a Microsoft Tag on the left – it’s got pretty colors and lots of triangles!

As an Internet marketer, I know how valuable mobile codes are around the world and how important they will be in the U.S. over the coming years. When I saw the Microsoft Tag, I was instantly disappointed because now we have yet another tagging technology to deal with. To some extent this is similar to the comparisons between Facebook Connect and OpenID. I haven’t heard anyone moaning that QR codes aren’t serving the needs of the community. The Microsoft Tag works just like a QR code works. You zap the tag with your mobile device and are taken to a site, promotion or application.

It appears the Microsoft Tag creation is free for now but eventually Microsoft will charge a fee to create a tag. What I wonder is how these tags change the cost of printing. A QR code can be printed in black/gray, this new Microsoft Tag needs full color which will certainly increase the cost of printing when black-only would have sufficed.

Long Zheng has a good comparison of the technical specifications between the Microsoft Tag and a QR code. Scoble says that the Microsoft Tag can be printed smaller and are more accurate.

I will be investigating these codes further as we support QR codes on CloudContacts for instant phone dialing. I doubt I would pay for code creation – especially when each person would have a unique code.