Facebook QR Barcodes Let Users Take Their Profiles With Them

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Facebook Starts To Roll Out QR Barcodes

Facebook started rolling out its newest feature this morning. The social media giant is introducing personal and status update QR barcodes. The feature is mobile oriented. The QR barcodes can be scanned by smart phones equipped with cameras. Not all profiles had the feature enabled this AM. In fact, very few did. So, there is a general confusion as to what the feature exactly does.

The QR barcodes are the two dimensional codes that can be decoded at high speed. QR stands for 'Quick Response' and is used for high speed electronic decoding. The 2D barcodes store a lot more information that the traditional 1D barcodes seen on merchandise items.

What happens when a smart phone scans a QR code is the information that is encoded in the barcode, which most commonly is links, photos or text, appears on one's phone. All you need is an app that can read the barcode.

So what is the usability of this? The trick is that one can create a Facebook QR barcode and print it on their business card, photo or T-shirt to have people scan it and access one's Facebook profile instantly. That saves finding a person on Facebook by typing up the their name in Facebook app. All one needs to connect on Facebook now is snap a photo of a person's QR barcode. Marketers will sure look to print QR codes on promotional flyers to link to their Facebook fan pages. All in all, this new feature can lead to some innovative marketing. It will also be interesting to see if Twitter picks up the pace to introduce their own QR codes.

The timing of QR barcode launch is interesting. Facebook has surpassed Google as the most visited website in the US last week. With the new QR codes being launched, it seems Facebook is serious about finding any way possible to sweep even more traffic. However, the company is keeping low-profile about the new feature. No statement regarding QR barcodes has been issued on official Facebook blog yet.