Mike Sparr

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Interesting times we live in. I must say this week will be colorful (CAR) and look forward to seeing everyone next month at NAR in San Diego. -- Mike Sparr Goomzee.com "Connecting buyers and sellers"

Joseph, Another good, thought-provoking article. At Goomzee, we tinkered with QRCodes and other tagging methods a few years ago. At the time, it was deemed way too early before it would ever reach the masses, despite how "sexy" it may seem. It would still be many years before enough market penetration to offer value to advertisers, which is why even Google/Microsoft and major retailers/manufacturers continue to tinker but refrain from mass promotion. Japan and Australia are markets the technology has flourished but it's still very slow, even in Europe, which the United States typically follows in technology adoption in the mobile space. One of the limitations your reader pointed out is most solutions require download/install of a reader. Another is the difficulty of mobile cameras to produce accurate enough photo, even with new auto-focus models, to ensure reliable decoding. Microsoft has their own version, of course, called Microsoft Tag, which boasts half the bits needed for a tag, and leverages color coding to allow even blurry photos to be decoded. For many years, despite the sexiness of tagging and augmented reality, which Apple is even working to patent within their iPhone, the one mobile communications standard that has over 80% market penetration, requires no downloads, minimal learning curve, and is built into every new mobile device is SMS, or text messaging. Knowing that any marketing solution's value is tied to the reach and potential users it can deliver (like Google AdWords), SMS is without a doubt the best mobile marketing solution marketers/sellers can choose from. I agree that URLs are less effective. They certainly appease sellers, like with property domains, but they do little for your own branding. The goal is to keep it simple, remember people are often busy or in passing so it has to be quick (no browsing, searching, trying to figure what street they're on), and maximum reach for solutions that don't require downloads, installs or additional learning curves. Thus, the education continues... ;-) We have some FREE information in a white paper hosted on our website if anyone wishes to read it. Visit: http://www.goomzee.com and click the white paper link at bottom - do it now. Hopefully that will provide you more insight and make you all informed mobile gurus. -- Mike Sparr, CEO http://www.Goomzee.com "Connecting buyers and sellers"

Hey Kevin, Nice video/sound bites. We'll have to catch up and see what you guys are working on - may be able to help. Enjoy Sunny So-Cal! Mike -- Mike Sparr Goomzee.com "Connecting buyers and sellers"