But it's not accurate. You can see lots of pictures of people scanning by searching, http://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+people+scanning+qr+codes
But it's pretty stupid when I hear about what a dead technology QR codes are.
It's like if someone kept saying that staplers were dead: Staplers are obsolete. More people use paper clips than staplers.
You'd think that person is an idiot. A staple and a paper clip both fasten paper, but one punches holes in the paper and the other doesn't. So one is used as a more permanent fastener and the other isn't.
The same with QR codes. Everyone is saying not to use them, that are obsolete. But these people don't seem to understand that obsolescence has nothing to do with usefulness. QR codes are great at what they do. They are incredibly useful. The only thing wrong with QR codes is that not enough people use them. So it's not the failure of the code, but a failure to educate the users.
So it's great to see this month's (March 2012) cover of Black Enterprise. There are QR codes all over it.
The downside is that the red code does not go to a mobile page. It scans to http://tagr.com/t/V3j4ds which directs to http://www.blackenterprise.com/2012/02/28/are-you-a-woman-behaving-wealthy/ which is a survey that is not mobile-ready.
The blue code points to http://tagr.com/t/V3j4dw which takes you to a mobile page which looks good on my phone.
And the purple code says it will take me to a video, http://tagr.com/t/V3j4d8, but instead I see a mobile page where the video might be posted later.
And if the codes are too colorful to scan from the cover, they reprinted them inside with brief explanations on what you'll see when you scan.
This is what publishers need to do is to educate and promote the use of the codes. And soon they'll be as ubiquitous as staples. Or paper clips.
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