If you believe that competition wins out over collaboration then this is a good thing.

How big do you have to be before corporate stupidity takes over? Tom Peters wrote that he suspects it starts after a company grows larger than 5 people. We’d add that age is also a factor and certainly as far as most large companies go Big and Dumb seem to go hand in hand. However, in this instance, nothing can be further from the truth. In this latest move by Google there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. We can say that with confidence because before Microsoft Tag arrived, we were talking to both Quickmark and 3GVision about the very same things. Even more encouraging is that RIM also recognizes how important this and have gone so far as to create their own proprietary QR Code reader. Competition is beginning to heat up.

There are discussions elsewhere on this site that describe the basics of QR Code basics, if you need to reference them. The underlying technology of a QR Code is based on an identifying string (header, key-word, prefix) that precedes the message body. Some of the standard prefixes are Web-to, Phone-to, SMS-to, MMS-to, Mail and Begin:vCard. The functionality of each prefix is clear. If you want the reader to perform the necessary steps to send an text message, then you start the text in the QR Code with "SMS-to:". In each case the application (the QR Code Reader in this case) determines the action to follow based on the prefix.

Depending on what reader you use, the option to view text will work differently. Older readers used to show the text as it is, while some newer format the text and hide the prefix. If you try it yourself, you will see things like “Web Page:Http://…” for a code that redirects to a web page and “Receiver:203-555-5555 | Body:Your message…” for a text message. Previous QR Code Readers would actually show the header codes in their text views. The point to understand is that for each action on the phone there is a specific header. Each header allows the reader to perform a different action. Therefore, adding different headers to the text, would allow for additional functionality that would be limited only by the number of headers you could create; essentially unlimited.

It takes some time before people realize why this is so important, which is in part why we keep coming up with new examples and products. You could create your own QR Code prefix as Directory-to and decide to use it with the intent of rendering a list of occupants in an office building. As someone entered the building, they would scan the code and be presented with a list that they could use to find who they were looking for. Your application might even show a map of the building and the route to get them where they need to go. The only glitch is that no existing reader recognizes your prefix.

The reader, or more precisely the ability to integrate with a given reader, will play a role in determining what prefixes can and cannot be used. This makes the reader manufacturers, 3GVision, QuickMark and RIM, very important and central to this issue. It also should be clear that there are to be 2 competing technologies, Microsoft Tag and QR Codes. This issue will be highlighted more over the coming months and there will be the usual list of suspects debating how to manage (read control) standards for prefixes, APIs and other access but essentially the main players are already involved.

Although they are being very quiet about its use, Research in Motion may have created their own QR Code Reader and therefore clearly understand that there is a future in having control of the custom prefix actions. Reports are still sketchy but if you search around you can find things like this. Having an application using their own distinct prefix to create a QR Code that works in conjunction with their Blackberry PINs or Avatars is a useful application of the technology but it will take a while for everyone to understand. A year ago, even the initial reader manufacturer seemed unimpressed when we demonstrated QRender, a Windows Mobile phone generating a QR Code on screen. LunaTagGEN for Mobile brings that concept to Microsoft Tag.

Of course using the headers in a QR Code isn’t the only way to generate alternate functionality. There are a host of things that can be done behind the scenes using the existing headers with redirection but there are bigger issues and opportunities available when you can add custom functionality to the reader application.

We have a more complete comparison between Microsoft Tag and QR Codes elsewhere but a recent glitch in the Google roll out of their “Favorite Place” program highlights one of the problems. A QR Code is text information and once created more cumbersome to revise than it would be to revise a tag, which is in fact just a reference. Whether it was the fault of the reader software created for the iPhone or the printed codes themselves is something they are fixing and you can search out additional details on the web. For our part, even though we are proponents of Microsoft Tag, we stand by our assessment that Quickmark still make an excellent QR Code reader.

In truth, you would have to believe that at least a little snickering is going on in Redmond but that had better be short lived. This current glitch aside; Google and RIM have both figured out the concept of extensions to the technology and moving forward at a rapid pace. It is shaping up to be a battle; healthy for the industry and consumers alike.