There’s two big problems with accessing the web (WAP) via your phone. Firstly, entering a url is just about the most opposite thing imaginable to “user friendly”, even for the quickest texter. Secondly, many sites aren’t optimised for WAP.
The first issue could have just completely disappeared in a puff of text with the launch of ShotCodes, from OP3.
If you want to look at this blog, for instance, it’ll take you about 65 clicks to enter the url on your phone. But if you use your camera phone to take a picture of this
provided you have ShotCode’s free software loaded on the phone, you’ll be taken straight here. How marvelous is that?
Anyone with a website or a blog can sign up to get their free ShotCode (commercial accounts cost Euro 54 with extra features bundled in) and print it on their business cards, T-shirts, forehead…whatever. And then people can access your site with their mobiles in just two clicks.
WAP has already been quietly exploding (long after it was written off for dead), growing 30% annually and notching up 1.82 billion page impressions in the UK in May 2005. This is despite its inherently difficult user interface. Imagine what would happen if ShotCodes took off - then we’d see a massive explosion of use.
Regular readers of this blog know that I find the whole area of where the physical world meets the digital one very exciting. Being able to access a web page by using your phone as a virtual mouse will open up a whole new world of information, enriching our environment immeasurably.
It certainly has Wikipedia-style implications, enabling us to drill down for information about our physical location. Who lived here? What’s that flower called? What type of car is that? Who’s that guy with a tattoo of a ShotCode on his forehead?
It also has commercial implications. Does this shop have any special bargains today? Can you show me where this dress was made? Have I won a prize with this purchase? Can you do tattoos of ShotCodes on my forehead?
Once you start thinking about this, there aren’t that many occasions when you’re going to find out about a WAP site, when there couldn’t also be an image of a ShotCode. And once you have it on your phone, you can return easily enough, whenever you want.
So well done Dennis and team. I hope you make lots of money and live happily ever after.
Hi Russel
I donít really believe this is such a good idea, for one main reason: The software is not built in with every phone. This means the audience is very very small. the masses won’t go and install the shotcode software. The only chance they might have is that the carriers or the manufacturers start distributing their software. I know a company http://www.scanbuy.com (and there are many more) that developed the same kind of product but using barcodes (all kinds). You scan a barcode with you camera and you are redirected to a wapsite. It’s even cleverer since you could for instance scan a product in a store and get all the prices in other stores or websites, get information and consumers commentsÖ..and so many more possibilities. The main problem is distributing the software.
There is a better idea (In my opinion) that we came out with in my former job: shortcodes with an SMS wap push:
In my former job, we made directions for use (photos or videos on wap) for technical products (DIY our computing). The main problem for us was to take the buyers to our directions of use on wap. So we came up with an idea. On every product sold for wich we made a direction for use there was a label on the packaging saying “to get the direction for use on your mobile send ìHard driveî by SMS to XXXXX” And then the customers gets a simple wap push that takes him to the right page (no need to enter the url, neither to surf through all the categories and products)
A couple of months later, The French operators came out with the same idea (how bizarre!!) for their common wap portal (In France there is a trans-operator wap portal called gallery). Send ìBrandî to 30130 and then you are redirected to the ìBrandî wap site on the operator portal. Thiefs
All this to say : [SMS a shortcode to a common and well known number (promoted by carriers or a third part company) + get a wap push] is much more universal than [install a software + scan with built in camera (if you have one)]Ö.
Semacode has been doing this for some time now as well.
SMS solutions are much easier and more universal. Also can SMS info from a pc to your phone if you find a good mobile site while online.
Thanks for your reactions to our service. Semacode and ShotCode were born around the same time (the core technologies that is) yet they are substantially different.
- ShotCodes are specifically developed for camera mobile phones making them more robust.
- ShotCodes contain a datastring which means that URL lookup and maintanance is server side. This saves a lot of problems when URL’s need to be changed (you don’t have to change print or start messing around with URL redirects)
- A URL of any size can be placed in a ShotCode without the ShotCode changing in size.
- And last but not least, because of our server system we can run our business in the way we do. We allow free use and pay per click commercial use against a completely open pricing structure. This has not been done before.
As with any innovative and potentially disruptive technology, the initial installbase is small. We are working hard in changing that, as is Semacode I am sure.
We’re also working on reading all kinds of barcodes, yet current camera phones are of such bad quality (except a few new ones) that the ShotCode standard will prove to be most robust choice. As soon as regular barcodes can be deciphered in a stable manner without the use of add-on lenses, then we’ll be delivering that possibility aswell.
Sending a message to a shoRtcode is completely universal, absolutely. But eventhough it’s a SHORTcode and the explanation is usually pretty good, I cannot explain to my grandmother (83 years old) how to do this. She was scanning ShotCodes right after the first time I showed her.
Usability is a huge problem in the mobile space, no matter how you look at it. I believe that our company has created a platform (www.shotcode.com) to start doing something about that.
I read about this on your blog on my PDA on the train in to work this morning. I’d already tried it out on the Heineken web site a few weeks ago but hey, I don’t live in Holland, so not a lot to shoot around here. So this morning I’ve registered and built myself a shotcode, and pointed it at a new subdomain on my web site. The cool thing is that I can now have a constant link address on my shotcode but I can point the subdomain anywhere I like. The software installation was painless on my Nokia 6600 and I’m pleased to see that I can leave the shotcode application memory resident and ready to go *and* the camera still works as normal. Where this system really scores over Semacode is that it’s so robust, and I can literally be walking along and snap the “shot” at the same time: with Semacode it had to be done with the precision of a bomber pilot and then results weren’t guaranteed. I can imagine these shotcodes appearing on advertising hoardings along bus routes and passengers can shoot them during urban journeys. I think the fact that OP3 have offered free accounts right from the start will encourage lots of experimentation and I certainly intend to test it to the max. Whether or not I’ll go for a Pro account is another matter, but I’ll be enlightening my employer with a view to getting them to promote something. As regards the software download, for me this is only a minor issue as I’m a techie, but I can understand other commentators views, and I have to say that no-one that I know has ever downloaded an application to their phone! The trick would be to not only build some outstanding commercial marketing campaigns but also to encourage individual users to “build their own” - maybe to publicise local gigs etc. This would fit in nicely with the apparently increased growth of WAP sites outside telco walled gardens. If the system was popular enough then I’m sure the telcos would start bundling the application with the phone itself, if only to try and recapture some of the traffic to their portals
i would lije to get oganized so i can get music and other stuff download to my phone
Hello. Love this blog! I was curious about the 1.82B WAP hits stat … do you know where this comes from? Thanks for any info!
David