Smarty Tags

You may have heard of QR Codes, but have you heard of "dynamic" QR codes?

Not long ago, I used the services of Smarty Tags (http://smartytags.com/) to generate a graphic code which, when scanned or uploaded to a decoder site, would lead to the following:

http://smartyt.ag/755187

If you were to click the above URL, you wouldn't think that much had happened, because it would lead you back to this blog. The reason is essentially that the URL is like one of the "URL shorteners" available via Google. It's basically a shortcut to the true URL of this particular blog. The actual text is probably harder to remember than a regular domain name, but that isn't the point, the point is that if you can scan the QR code, you shouldn't have to remember anything at all.

One advantage of dynamic URLs is that the information stored by the company which issued the dynamic QR code might have been entered incorrectly the first time around (for those of us prone to typos), or parts of that information might have changed. For instance, I may eventually use a web hosting service such as www.1and1.com, to offer the Chapel Network News in a more sophisticated way than I can with a simple and free blog. If I do that, the QR code will still lead to the new correct site, I merely need to edit the information stored by the company which issued the dynamic QR code. Or at least I think that's the way it is supposed to work. I still have some tests to run, but I believe that it will prove to be a good idea to use dynamic QR codes when promoting this site.