Simply overlay the ‘Scan with ShopSavvy’ badge on top of any QR Code and ShopSavvy users will be alerted that they can scan the code.  Users who don’t have a reader are instructed to download our reader (for free) from the shopsavvy.mobi website.  To use the ShopSavvy name and graphic you must receive permission (via email) which will not be unreasonably withheld (generally we just want to try to up-sell you).  Just let us know how you plan to use our graphic and name and send it to sales@biggu.com.

While consumers will be able to leverage ShopSavvy they will ALSO be able to use ANY barcode scanner than supports QR Codes.  LOTS of phones have the ability to scan 2D codes natively – your QR promotion will work on any of these devices unlike proprietary barcodes.

Options

• custom download link, i.e. brand.com/shopsavvy (links to custom version of ShopSavvy with brand’s messaging in footer – 320×36px)
• location aware QR Codes, i.e. we can report GPS (lat/long) to advertiser for each scan.
• custom 1D programs, i.e. proprietary UPC/EAN codes linked to your actions (for agencies who wish to keep their programs proprietary).
• custom art, i.e. on white, on black or in color.

While at the event I carried my Nexus One and almost everyone had to check it out.  Hanging out at the LG Booth I was uber-impressed by the 6.9mm thick (or thin) LED television (picture below), but the LG rep just wanted to play with the active wallpaper on my phone.  Of course, this was just part of the story.  The biggest ‘buzz’ after you tried out four or five of the 3D televisions was all about Android.  Scott Fulton wrote about the ‘android buzz’ suggesting, “Android has emerged from CES 2010 as the software platform story of the year.“  Android was at the heart of so many of the coolest new gadgets I lost count.  Some of the more exciting Android-based gadgets included Motorola’s Backflip and the Alex e-reader.  The Android-based gadgets spanned segments including automotive, home theater and games.  Android was the ‘Intel inside’ of LOTS of devices.

Update: More than a few (maybe 10) online spirits retailers contacted me about including their products in ShopSavvy.  Thanks!  But we still need local retailers in the system.  If you know of a local retailer suggest to them that they should be in ShopSavvy…

]]> http://www.biggu.com/2010/01/02/do-you-have-prices-for-beer-wine-spirts/feed/ 0 http://www.biggu.com/2009/12/31/announcing-shopsavvy-3-6-for-android/ http://www.biggu.com/2009/12/31/announcing-shopsavvy-3-6-for-android/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:05:47 +0000 amuse http://www.biggu.com/?p=2414 It has been an amazing year for Android and the Android version of ShopSavvy.  Of course we owe a LOT to our partners including Google, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon.  Some of you have suggested we might be focusing too much on the iPhone version of ShopSavvy.  Sadly we HAVE been spending a little too much time on it.  We are still in our ‘beta’ phase on iPhone (our long term Android users will remember that we went through a ‘beta’ phase on Android too) – we should be stable and fast sometime in January.  In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that we haven’t been ignoring the Android version of ShopSavvy!  Say hello to ShopSavvy 3.6 for Android (available in market sometime today). Here are some of the changes in 3.6

• QR Code Support - supporting ALL QR codes including URL redirect, contact, phone number, sms, new app install AND Google’s Favorite Places Stickers
• Bug Fix - common Force Close Issue should be gone (other Android developers with same problem should email support@biggu.com to learn how to stop force close from happening when users update apps)
• Logo Clean Up – standardized on new ShopSavvy icon (sticker with curled edge, read more here)
• Internal UI polish – including use of new icons inside of ShopSavvy

Previously I have written about why we didn’t support QR codes.  Recently Google announced their Google Favorite Places program whereby Google mailed QR code window stickers to something like 190,000 local retailers.  These QR codes are tied to Google local search feature and allows the retailer to include coupons and special offers to users who scan the codes.  In light of this new feature and its connection to retail shopping we decided it was time to support QR code scanning.  ShopSavvy will now scan all 1D and 2D barcodes.  Try scanning the code to the right (it is my contact info) and feel free to let me know how you like the new changes in ShopSavvy for Android.  Oh and have a Happy New Year!

Update: Several of you have asked about QR code support in the iPhone version of ShopSavvy.  The quick answer it is coming.  The longer answer is that we don’t want to overcomplicate our release until we are out of our beta phase.  Scanning speeds need to improve significantly.  Additionally, it is much easier for us to include QR code scanning in phones that have auto-focus (i.e. 3GS) so it is likely that our first QR release will only support the 3GS and not legacy 3G/2G phones.  I would look for a QR code release 30 days after a stable/fast ShopSavvy release on the iPhone.  But fear not, we are moving in that direction (see picture).

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UPDATE: ShopSavvy for Android supports QR Codes.  Read more here.

Lots of our users ask why ShopSavvy doesn’t read QR codes.  The answer is twofold, a) manufacturers and retailers in the US and Europe don’t use QR codes and b) QR aren’t typically related to product identification.  The simple answer is that QR codes don’t have much of anything to with shopping and ShopSavvy is all about shopping.  There is no technical reason we can’t scan a QR code – in fact our scanning libraries already scan a QR code. The problem with QR codes is that they usually include a URL or contact info – information that ShopSavvy can’t really use.  Let me give you some background.

QR codes are two-dimensional codes (as seen on the right) that were created by a Japanese company called Denso-Wave back in 1994 to track vehicle parts during manufacturing.  Unlike one-dimensional barcodes that only contain eight to seventeen digits, QR codes can contain up-to 7,089 numeric characters, 4,296 alphanumeric characters, 2,953 binary bytes or 1,817 Japanese characters.  This data storage was VERY important PRIOR to the Internet.  QR codes were invented about the same time as the World Wide Web and as a result the value of having an ‘un-connected’ barcode that held significant data became less and less important.  Sure QR codes proliferated in manufacturing, supply chain applications and shipping, but outside of Japan and Korea their use in consumer applications has been almost non-existent.

So why aren’t they popular in consumer applications outside of Japan and Korea?  Largely because if you can scan a one-dimensional barcode with an internet connect device brands, manufactures, retailers and advertisers have more control.  They can provide different information to consumers based on time of day, day of week, season, location of user and so on.  With a QR code that must be printed they have no control – whatever data existed at time of printing is the data that will be in the QR code.  Why would anyone bother to create a code that couldn’t mean different things for different people?  You can’t put a price in the QR code – because prices change.  You can’t put product recall data into the QR code – because product recalls happen AFTER printing of product packaging.  Of course you CAN insert a URL into a QR code and direct a user to a webpage – but you can do the same with a one-dimensional code and almost 100% of products ALREADY have a 1D code. So why are QR codes big in Japan?  I think the primary reason is that they can contain 1,817 Japanese characters (Kanji/Kana).  Almost ALL mobile phones in Japan have the capability of reading QR codes.  NTT Docomo established the de facto standard for encoding URLs and contact information – all using Kanji/Kana.

When manufacturers begin marking their products with QR codes we WILL include them in our system.  For now “0″ manufacturers create QR codes for use in retail supply chains – i.e. as they do for 1D codes.  As soon as they do ShopSavvy will allow you to scan a 1D or 2D code (i.e. EAN/QR) an retrieve product information including: price, availability, dimensions, weight, ingredients, social impact and environmental impact.  To learn more read GS1’s Mobile Barcodes Position Paper.

Take a look at the version 1.2 scanning update to the right.  We show progress of the scan as well as offer a boundary to show users were to align the scanner.  We hope this will help users a) who are unsure if ShopSavvy is scanning by showing progress and b) to know where to align the barcode.  Our testing (with my wife who couldn’t really use version 1.0) shows that most users can scan pretty easily with these two additions.  These fixes are in addition to the fork of our scanning library (i.e. one for 2/3G and one for 3GS).

Download ShopSavvy for iPhone HERE.

• Data Sharing. Free License for Applications that share their data with ShopSavvy (food data, price data, allergy data, review data and so on).  If your data can help ShopSavvy provide users with a better experience we will share our technology with you for free.  We will ALSO provide a link to your app providing you with a free advertising channel.
• Publishing License. Free License for Applications that use Big in Japan’s app publishing services.  We announced this model previously in post titled, “License our barcode scanning tech for free” (you can read more there).

We have scanning libraries for Android AF, Android non-AF, RIM, 2/3G iPhone, 3GS iPhone and Windows Mobile.  If you are interested just email or call Jennifer Donica at 1+214.550.3534 jdonica@architel.com.

The Scan Mob participants scanned hundreds of items finding opportunities for savings (Best Buy prices matches online retailer prices such as Amazon) as well as finding that Best Buy had great deals on lots of the products they wanted to buy.  My parents even showed up and saved quite a bit on Jawbone Bluetooth headsets.  Buy the end of the ‘Scan Mob’ a manager finally came up to us and asked what we were doing.  Rylan showed him ShopSavvy and the manager explained there was NO video allowed.  Rylan explained that ShopSavvy was not using video.  The manager then explained to him that there were no pictures allowed.  Rylan explained that ShopSavvy was not taking a photo.  I mentioned that ShopSavvy was a partner of Best Buy and he let us continue wrecking havoc on the store (just kidding).  I wanted to thank the Best Buy team at store #58 as well as the API team – you guys are awesome partners and a big reason ShopSavvy is such a success.  Thanks a lot!  Here is a video from this evening:

In the iPhone version of ShopSavvy if you scan an item WITHOUT local prices we simply show a tab that says “Prices”.  If we have local prices we show the two tabs, i.e. Web and Local price.  By not calling attention to the fact that we don’t have a local price for an item we don’t get many emails from annoyed users relative to local results.  Of course, in our world, not many is hundreds so I thought I would explain how to get local results on ShopSavvy.

Most new users (i.e. the vast majority of support emails) download ShopSavvy at their house and begin scanning items they already to own.  Many of these items are grocery related and we don’t cover groceries very well (read more here).  The rest are old books and DVDs – many of these are still available online, but they are no longer in local stores.  These ‘DEMO’ scans often yield poor results, a) the items are no longer sold in local stores, b) they are of groceries and c) the barcodes are hard to read.  We have received hundreds of negative ratings from these users even though they have never actually tried to use ShopSavvy to shop.  My advice?  Use ShopSavvy when you shop – you will be surprised how helpful ShopSavvy can be.

The reason ShopSavvy performs well in retail stores is fairly obvious.  First, the items sold in one retail store are likely sold in other retail stores – meaning we will have local inventory and price.  Major local retailers carry between 10,000 and 100,000 items – this is out of millions of items.  Second, the lighting in retail stores is often far better than the lighting in your house – this means scanning will be faster.  Third, the barcodes are almost always printed on flat surfaces – this means scanning will be faster.  Trying to scan items in your house means you are scanning items that might not be currently sold, might have hard to read barcodes and scanning in low light.  Before you give us a poor review or rating, please actually use ShopSavvy when you are shopping for Christmas.