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You've probably seen these interesting square images on the sides of buildings and packages but wondered what they were.  They are QR codes; the QR stands for Quick Response.  They were invented by a subsidiary of Toyota in 1994 to help automate industrial data collection.  

Armed with a mobile phone with an app that scans and interprets their message, QR codes can link your mobile phone browser to web pages more efficiently than typing long URLs - and they can tell the web site how you got there.  It's a great way to collect markting information and streamline consumer interraction.

Locations can be tagged with QR codes and take you to web sites that give more information or allow you to check in.  Some uses of QR codes are more social . . . like the one on this T shirt you scan that takes you to the wearer's Facebook page where you can become Friends.  

I've used QR codes on a single page handout, together with URLs, to replace pages of material I know will only get lost or become obsolete.  

I've seen QR codes on business cards - that makes a lot of sense too . . . card scanning software can just interpret the text inside the code as data such as name, address, etc.  It makes the collection of contact information more reliable.  Highly dense QR codes can store hundreds of characters.

QR codes are evidence that mobile devices are quickly becoming the standard way we harvest information.  They are free and fun to use.  Just visit this link, type in whaterver you want, and then cut and past the resulting QR code image anywhere you like.  It works in Word, Open Office and most other graphics programs.