Uh. Two people whose opinions I deeply respect, Niko Nyman and Joel Spolsky, say that 2D barcodes don't work.

In 2006, in my earlier job, I tried to push the concept inside Nokia, publicly manisested by the the pompous blog posts 2D barcodes will rule the earth and 2D Barcode Manifesto. Taking a honest look at the current state, hovever, I realize that things have not proceeded as quickly as I assumed. Yes, we (=Nokia) have put a free barcode generator available. Yes, we have put a pre-installed barcode reader in the hands of millions. Yes, we have promoted open standards, and the consensus in the industry seems to be that this is the only sane way foward. And lots of other companies and individuals are doing similar stuff.

But still, I don't see barcodes around me. I don't use them in real life. I haven't seen anyone (Japan being an exception) using them in real life, except for technical curiosity. Still, I am planning to add barcodes-linking-to-application-downloads under Beta Labs website, due to numerous requiests from Beta Labs users. I still very much want to give 2D barcodes a fighting chance.

As Joel concludes:

Sometimes when the elders say to the youngsters, "don't do that, we tried that, it failed," it's just because they're failing to notice that the world has changed. But sometimes the elders are right, and the youngsters really are too young to know the history of the idea they think that they've just invented.

I guess we'll get to watch to see whether the oldsters or the youngsters will win this one.

Pick your side: