The Google Empire is hoping to break into the newspaper advertising business – Google Print – using barcode technology…
Google’s efforts to get into the newspaper ad business have yet to yield much. One tool it hopes will eventually change that: Small, square barcodes, at the bottom of print ads.
When a person scans the barcode with a cell phone that is compatible, it takes their phone’s browser to a mobile Web address encrypted in the graphic.
It means that if you are sitting on a train reading the news you can see an advert and click on it with your phone without having to type in or remember a URL, a person can…
get taken directly to some special context-specific page and with a relevant analytics tool print advertisers will have a very accurate measure of “conversions”.
This has three benefits:
First, it saves the reader the trouble of typing in a Web address into their phone — an annoying process for the majority of wireless subscribers that do not have phones with QWERTY keypads.
Second, it can take the reader to a very specific page, based on an individual ad — like a coupon or a map to the advertiser’s store. And third, it ties into Google’s analytics tools, so advertisers can get a very specific sense of which ads work and which do not, when people are viewing them, where they are standing (GPS), etc.
“As an example, if you read a review about a performance of Wicked in your area, there may be an ad for the production. If it was a Google Print ad that used barcodes, you could quickly access the right page to buy a ticket at a nearby theater. The barrier at first will be just making sure you have a compatible phone, with Internet access, and the right software installed.”
“The technology has been out for a little while now and is proving popular in Japan where it has been trialed.”
“2D barcodes have been common in Japan for a number of years,” Google said in its barcode help page. “In fact, Japanese business cards often feature barcodes containing contact information.”
A Google exec presenting at a NY Advertising Club meet-up the search company hosted Monday night said the barcode software’s penetration is about 10% right now in the U.S. We are told that is a liberal estimate — a mobile marketing exec we talked to at the meeting said he would be surprised if the software is set up on even 1% of phones in the U.S.
Either way, there are big hurdles before the barcodes catch on here. The biggest: Getting the four biggest mobile carriers, which sell the vast majority of cell-phones in the U.S., on board.
Apparently Google is approaching carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and phone manufacturers like Motorola and Samsung to install the scanning software on phones in the US and Europe.
One of the problems it has is how to split up the advertising revenue. The next thing would be to try and convince users that it is a damn good idea to use the things.
However, some of Google’s problems will be solved as it rolls out Android, its mobile operating system, later this year — Google can put pretty much whatever software it wants on those phones. But there are 240+ million wireless subscribers right now in the U.S., and none of them runs Android. Google has its work cut out.
The first ads containing these barcodes appeared in newspapers, and connected to jewelry retailer Blue Nile. Google promoted these and other barcode ads, as a way to quickly deliver more information about an advertiser to a consumer. Google sells the barcode to the advertiser, who has set up the web address.
“It is far too soon to guess at how successful bar-coding may be, for Google or anyone else opting to use the technology.”
That said, Google’s own development platform Android is in the pipeline, and that has all the hallmarks of a game-changer.