The 2D Barcode industry is increasing on full speed mode. You can notice more and more implementations of 2D Barcode campaigns in the publishing industry, the latest example with Allure. Microsoft Tag is now the leader is this industry. The numbers below speak by themselves: 

• 1 billion Tags have been printed in the past four months, bringing the total to
  2 billion Tags printed since its January 2009 launch.
• The number of Tag users per month increased three fold in the first quarter since emerging from beta in May; the number of Tags scanned per month increased four fold during the same time period.
• To date, more than 100,000 Tag accounts have been set up to add interactive digital experiences to brand advertising and marketing campaigns.
• Since August, Tag has been used in more than 100 million magazine issues.
• In the largest known barcode campaign to date, Allure had 450,000 scans, using Microsoft Tag for its annual Free Stuff Giveaway issue in August

The full press release on the Microsoft website.

Create your own Tag for free here.

Microsoft Tag and Allure magazine recently concluded an astounding that resulted in 444,572 Tag scans. This is the largest Microsoft Tag campaign to date and a significant increase in scans compared to other 2D barcode campaigns. JAGTAG was previously considered to have the biggest 2D barcode campaign with 100,000 scans during a Sports Illustrated campaign earlier this year.

Microsoft Tag is a new kind of customizable 2D barcode that can be displayed anywhere and connects almost anything in the real world to information, entertainment, and interactive experiences on your mobile phone. They can be black and white or color, and customized with a logo, product image or other design. Tags are scanned using the free downloadable Microsoft Tag Reader on your smartphone.

In past years, Allure used their website as the entry point for their annual giveaway, but this year Allure added Microsoft Tag to the mix. The August issue included 39 Microsoft Tags that allowed readers to enter any one of the 159 giveaways of beauty products worth $725,000.

Try Microsoft Tag

· You can link virtually anything in the real world to a Microsoft Tag and change the content associated with that Tag at any point.

• Click here to view a short video that explains how Tag works.
• Try creating your own Tag here.

If any questions related to Tag: Twitter @microsofttag

You can find a lot of information about Microsoft Tag on this blog. I like to share great product features. Microsoft related or not.  Few days ago, we’ve just announced a new feature: The Microsoft Tag Heat Map which allows users to get more specific information about their Microsoft Tag scans such as Where were they scanned? How many time?

Get all those visualization data through Bing maps:

Microsoft Tag owners are able to scroll over the world and dive deeper in to an appropriate location. The two screenshots represent where did happen the scans related to the Microsoft Tag on my business card. I can deep dive to a street level to see where people find my Tag. As you can see, a lot of scans happen in Paris, wondering why …

If you don’t show up on this map yet, scan the Microsoft Tag below

Where to start? Go on Microsoft Tag now, create your tag for free and put it out there, then check your map!

To follow the latest about Microsoft Tag, follow us on Twitter: @microsofttag

I’ve been working now for almost two years on Microsoft Tag. If you’ve never heard about this cool product, have a look to the video that will give you a quick overview of its potential:

Also a cool feature of Microsoft Tag is the custom Tag. You can design a Tag with your logo or a picture as a background. Below one example for R. Scoble that took me 30 seconds to create. If you want to create your own it’s free and pretty fast:

If you have any questions regarding Tag, feel free to ping us on Twitter or Facebook.

Blogging less! Why? Spending more and more time on social networks like Twitter and Facebook and others social networks to share my updates and interesting news. I’ve found these mediums a much better and efficient way to share news across my networks and also a better way to read those.

Below I’ve created a Microsoft Tag that will redirect you to my Facebook Page. How to use it? Grab your phone, go on gettag.mobi, download the Microsoft Tag application of your phone (iPhone, BB, WinMo…) and snap the Tag:

If you want to create your own Microsoft Tag, it will literally take you 2 minutes using PowerPoint, watch the podcast to make your own.

Below a example of Microsoft custom Tag to check-in on Foursquare, this one will check-in you in the Foursquare HQ, NYC.

Please share your creations on the Microsoft Tag community.

I’m not a guy who likes business cards and even more I hate paper! Why? Maybe I try to be “green” but the fact is I want to get everything accessible from anywhere (S+S), I don’t want to waste time with mails...(Ex: I could change my electricity provider if they don’t allow to set up a payment via Internet).

So what will happen If you give me your business card? Will I Destroy it? Humm maybe! No, not yet at least:), I will take a picture of it with my Smartphone and will add you in my Outlook contacts. I won’t collect those in a box. Yes, again I don’t like paper! :)

However today, I received my new Microsoft business cards with a Microsoft Tag on it! What is the difference? I’ve just said that I hate paper!??(you get it now, right?) Now, I just need to show my business card and you’ll snap the Microsoft Tag with your phone and that’s it! I will be in your contacts! No need to keep an additional business card in your pocket, it is already in your contact list! (and synchronized in the cloud if you use Exchange)

I will show you that next week in Barcelona for the 3GSM if you’ll be there!

Should I bring just 1 business card that everyone will Snap?