Microsoft releases its second iPhone app: Microsoft Tag

Microsoft Tag has been ported to the iPhone which makes it the second iPhone app that Microsoft offers (the first being Seadragon). With Microsoft Tag, the whole world can become a barcode with the cell phone acting as the bar code scanner. Users aim their camera phone at a tagged object and the app shows them data associated with the object/tag. For instance, if advertisers tag their billboards, business cards, T-shirts, print ads, a mobile phone user equipped with the Tag app receives whatever multimedia info stored in the tag -- be it content (directions to the advertised store), videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions what-have-you. Nothing to type and no need to launch a browser.

Microsoft hints that eventually it will charge for the tag making process, as its Web site says that during beta people can create all the tags they want, for free. Microsoft Tags is based on Microsoft’s High Capacity Color Barcodes system, which is a high capacity barcode system that stores more information, as seen in the image below. The system is similar to the QR Code matrix. The iPhone app is joined by several other versions of Microsoft Tag including Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian S60, J2ME.

To see the application in action, check out the video on the Business 2.0 Press blog.

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