QR codes—squares of black-and-white patterns—have much to recommend them. They store far more information than plain, old bar codes. For example, they can fit in web addresses and logos. And they are cheap. They have been popular in Japan for years, but elsewhere have for a while been touted as the next big thing.
Over the past year, QR codes have quietly slipped into the marketing mainstream. Three-quarters of American online retailers surveyed by Forrester, a research firm, use them.
Scanlife, a provider of QR code services, saw the number of unique users scanning codes through its system triple in the year to March.
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