Broback's Blog

I was surprised to see that some companies are actually trying to create proprietary standards that compete/override the ubiquitous — and open QR (Quick Response) code. And as far as Google searches indicate, they aren’t doing very well. This report details the “seven dwarfs” that seem to be getting very little traction.

These codes I’d never heard of include: JAGTAGs, SnapTags, Microsoft Tags, BeeTaggs, EZcodes, and DataMatrix Codes.

Logic and experience tell me that If one planned on using a particular code format, they’d do some searches to learn how to create them. If that assumption is accurate, these other formats are not being implemented at a scale anywhere near the skyrocketing adoption rate we see with QR codes.

Check out these Google Insights for Search results below. Because QR codes originated in Japan and are in widespread use there, I restricted my searches to the U.S.:

Note the trend — and the ever-widening gap.