Microsoft Tag

As you may know, mobility is one of the important elements on web. As everybody has their own different tastes, there are diverse platforms people prefer to use. For me, in the kitchen, I use iPad as usual, on the other hand, Mac mini is used in my room. Outside home, iPhone is used for working as well. That's why I always consider a way to make it easy to link to mobile. QR code is one of the solutions for that. As many companies use QR code for the purpose of promotion, I would like to introduce new good-looking 2D-code instead of QR code.

Introduction

If you don't have your business card yet, you can print this tag on the backside or any place you want. I also designed my personal business card by myself, which company logo is printed on the front side, and this microsoft tag is printed on the back side. Most of people don't know what Microsoft tag is yet, but it is worth for looking good itself.
Many people like it. Microsoft tag is not only advanced technology, but also very aesthetic. If you use QR codes already, I would recommend you to use both of them.

What is Microsoft Tag, and How to use it

Microsoft Tag is one of 2D-codes which shows you specific contents online if you focus a tag using Microsoft tag application integrated with Camera. Easily, you can use tags on mobile devices such as smart phones, and other portable devices including camera. Inserting tags into your web would be a great solution in order to help people easily approach your specific contents such as websites, vCards, and video clips on portable devices. With the help of this, someone doesn't need to input your website's URL on the devices. This is the advantage, 'Easy approach'. As you may know, there is another 2D-code which is QR code. This is the most common for use. However, I would prefer Microsoft Tag than QR code because it looks better and you can customize the looks.

In my country, South Korea, only a few companies make use of this technology for the purpose of their products' promotions. But recently the usage is going up. For sure, all products Microsoft produces include this on their packages. Probably, the usage would steadily be going up across the world. It's completely free, so you can try it on your web right now.

How to create your own Tag

Go to Microsoft Tag website, http://tag.microsoft.com
If you don't have an account yet, please sign up, then create your account.
If you account is successfully created, click "TAG MANAGER" on the top navigation.
You are ready to create your own Tags. You can add your tag right now.
Click "Create a Tag" button like below.
Once you have done, a form will show up.
Fill out the Tag title as any names you want.
Select one of Tag Types such as URL, vCard, Free Text, and Dialer. Here, I would describe only about URL. It will take you directly to your designated website. Please select URL.
Write Tag note you want to describe. It doesn't matter if it is blank. This note is only used for you.
Check on "No End Date" if you don't want to let your tag expired.
Please input your website's URL, and save it.
Your tag is ready to be generated.
You can see the list of tags you have to manage.
Please click the Tag image on the "Render" column in which you want to download.
You can choose File format such as PDF, WMF, JPEG, PNG, and so on... The best format for Web would be PNG, but it's up to you.
You can select one of 4 tag styles listed.
If you want to customize your tag style, please select the first, "Custom". Otherwise you can directly insert it onto a page on iWeb.
Please click "Render" button on the bottom.
The rendered tag will be downloaded in your designated directory.
You are ready to put it on iWeb. Please drag & drop it onto your page you want to insert. I recommend to insert this onto "Contact us" page or "Home page". You may get more traffics from mobile.
Resize it as you want, and place it.
If you want to test it, please download Microsoft tag application on your iPhone or other smartphones.
Launch the application, and make sure whether it works correctly.

How to customize your Tags or How to get your own Tags

The one thing to make it distinguished from other 2D-codes, is to allow you to customize it. If you have your website's logo, you can converge your logo with the tag. It definitely looks unique. Please, refer to this page, http://tag.microsoft.com/custom-tags.aspx, then download Implementation Guidelines PDF file. It will guide you about how to customize your tag with your logo. If you can't customize it, feel free to ask me. I'm very skillful at customizing tag. Just send me your logo and tag you downloaded. It requires photoshop or microsoft powerpoint. It takes several minutes.