back to article Google Places puts QR Codes on the shelf

Google has become a Principal Member of the NFC Forum, just as Google Places drops support for the lower-tech, but cheaper to implement, QR Codes that do much the same thing. QR Codes are 2D bar codes designed to be scanned with a phone's camera and take the user to a specific URL, but despite mailing them out to 100,000 US …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Near Field is flawed...

    ...because the banks take a cut. We're already starting to see more retailers pass the credit card charge on to customers; a fee they've swallowed for years.

    I'd rather pay in cash and save myself the 1.5% additional fee.

    All this new fangled dealing is coming at a cost; a cost that I don't want to be forced to pay. What next, is my bank manager going to be at my elbow whenever I whip out my purse and help himself to 1.5% of whatever cash I spend?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yes I know...

      ... but I'm against NFC in general. Full stop. Dangerous is what it is. We hates it, my precious. We hates it.

  2. SuperTim

    similar redundancy...

    If QR codes are redundant because it is easy to search with a modern device, then having NFC built in is no great boon. Handsets that don't have it will still be able to search easily. Also, a big QR code photographed from 30 feet away is still translatable, where an NFC chip aint!

    Still, i am sure someone will be making money out of it somewhere.

    1. John Sager
      FAIL

      precisely

      Those big QR codes on the canal sides in Amsterdam can't easily be replaced by NFC tags. To me, it seems like two very different technologies with rather different uses. True, some uses may be served by either, but definitely not all of them.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NFC

    Isn't that what they use to tag clothes at M&S?

    Do people really seriously need to be (even more) tagged as well?

    Amazing how so many are against ID cards, but when it's run by a commercial organisation they all voluntarily sign up and even pay extra to get it.

  4. juice
    Boffin

    The marketplace is easy to search?

    "Here at El Reg we carefully put QR Codes on our Android app reviews, but in fact its easier to run the Android Marketplace and type a few letters of the application name. The same applies to shops and businesses; Google can find a business with surprising speed from the name, while snapping a QR Code can take a surprisingly long time."

    I'm happy to agree that the Google search engine is impressively good at finding matches for business names, but I'm not convinced the same is true of the marketplace; it appears to have very loose matching rules and (as per Yell.com but unlike Google's search engine) presents the search results in a randomly shuffled order, so as to give all apps a fair chance.

    TBH, I think NFC and QR codes are two separate systems and should be treated as such; you can't store a huge amount of data in a QR code (though you can link to it), but you can't access a NFC from ten meters away, neither can you print out NFC codes in a magazine nor email them to a friend.

    I think the biggest problem is that there isn't a standard QR app for Android/iPhone; not only do you have to download one separately (e.g. Barcode Scanner) but it also limits the level of integration with the OS. Admittedly, most of them simply resolve into a URL which you can then launch in the browser, but I'm sure you could do more interesting stuff, such as the Augmented Reality stuff in the 3DS (e.g. have a new URL format such as augrel://this.is.where.you.download.the.data - your phone could then download the game/info associated with the QR and do it's funky stuff, such as overlaying street signs or cute fluffy bunnies)...

  5. Eldnah
    Black Helicopters

    More expensive = more margin = ...

    = more profit for firms investing in the technology. Wonder how much Google has invested in NFC (the tech as well as in other firms).

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