Why does that QR Code go to justinsomnia.org?

http://justinsomnia.org/2011/03/why-does-that-qr-code-take-me-to-justinsomnia-org

by jacobr • 14 years ago

309 72 14 years ago

habudibab• 14 years ago

Would be great for viral marketing. As far as I know it is possible to forge codes that are valid but have an image embedded. A stickfigure giving another one oral pleasures for example. Place it in the streets and people who think of QR codes as random jumble will see it as a funny coincidence, take a picture for the funny pages and maybe decypher it and visit your erotic gadgets shop.

mnutt• 14 years ago

Interesting story, though I don't understand what he says at the end about not being able to redirect the QR Code to another link because the QR Code is the link. Why not just send a 302 redirect?

He sounds like he wouldn't do it on principle, but I don't understand the technical reason why he couldn't.

pilif• 14 years ago

Because then his blog would be unavailable? The code points to the root of his domain.

And even if he was willing to have his blog redirect to that other site, there's still the issue about all these other misprinted codes. If they point to $randomblog it's mostly funny. If they point (via the redirect) to $possible_competitor, it's much worse

rpledge• 14 years ago

It points to his top level. He'd be sending traffic away from his site unless he managed to filter it somehow.

drostie2• 14 years ago

He already indicates in the paragraph just before that he technically could redirect the traffic -- that he offered to send all IPs from Belgium to some Belgian company which had accidentally used his QR code in actual advertisements. (And that they declined because he asked too much money.)

There is no technical barrier to redirection. What he actually says is "What does that mean? I’m guessing they think I can somehow magically cause that QR Code (which they accidentally used in something printed?) to redirect to another URL. I don’t think they understand that the QR Code IS the URL."

Notice the word order. He's "guessing what they think", and his guess is that they think he can "magically cause the QR code to redirect to another URL" -- the object of the sentence is not his domain, and not his URL, but the QR code. (He's saying that they've phrased it as if there is a QR code database where the code must be looked up.)

eliaskg• 14 years ago

I made the experience that it's never a good idea to point a QR code to a fixed domain. Always create a little redirect app where you can define later on what target the link should point on.

So for example point the link to http://mysite.com/qr

where you have a little redirection-php file that you can edit at all time.

sp3326• 14 years ago

As a user, that would really annoy me. I like to know where I'm going before I put a URL in my browser.

lysol• 14 years ago

And if you care that much about the URL you should be able to infer from website.tld/qr that it's a QR code specific URL to track hits.

iso8859-1• 14 years ago

I don't think the majority of users check the URL of the QR code. Why wouldn't you trust the advertiser? I think it's really rare to see an advert that looks innocent, but actually isn't, and at the same time contain a QR code that has a "malicious-looking" URL.

mseebach• 14 years ago

Any URL can send you anywhere. If you trust the origin of the QR-code, there's no reason to not trust going to /qr.

For the record, I agree with reviewing the URL before hitting it, but if the domain matches what I expect, I'd be strongly inclined to trust the rest.

mgcross• 14 years ago

It's very common to use shortened URLs to decrease the complexity and size of the resulting code. I don't think most users scanning codes are any more concerned than they are clicking on a shortened twitter link.

metaprinter• 14 years ago

"it's never a good idea to point a QR code to a fixed domain" why not?

sp3326• 14 years ago

Does anyone know of a FF plugin that will decode QR codes in images on a page, and maybe even turn them into live links? Here's one for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bfdjglobiolninfgld...

dochex• 14 years ago

Here's our Mac OS X program that reads QR codes anywhere on your screen -- any program (browser, editor) -- and makes them live links.

http://www.ripeapps.com/#qrreader

nvk• 14 years ago

Check out the discussion here http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3532925

dholowiski3• 14 years ago

We use QR codes extensively where I work. We use them in print ads and on TV commercials and I have a re-occurring nightmare that we'll use the 'wrong' QR code somewhere disastrous... like printing a link to our competitors on 10,000 brochures or something like that.

I insist that I check all QR codes before they're sent out, and I scan them with 2-3 different QR scanning apps.

As another commentor mentioned, I often send our QR codes to a redirector URL - either a branded redirector service I built, or to a WordPress site with the redirection plugin, or even to it's very own domain name which is configured for forwarding.

karterk• 14 years ago

Very curious - are they actually effective? Do people use them? What's the "click-through" rate like?

dholowiski3• 14 years ago

They are not very effective... yet. At this point the 'click through' rate is a fraction of a percent. The reason we're doing it is so that we will be prepared - the day that Android or IOS includes a QR code reader built into the OS (it will happen) usage will go through the roof.

corin_2• 14 years ago

An interesting data point - Storm On Demand (http://www.stormondemand.com/) use AdWords a lot, and I'm always seeing their ads (clearly Google has designated me their target market - correctly).

Some of their MPU adverts had QR codes in them, and I called this out on Twitter telling them it was moronic to think that anyone would want to scan the QR code off an advert rather than just click it. Their response was that in their testing of many different adverts, the ones with QR codes were getting the best CTRs. They didn't know the reason for this, and neither do I - but it's interesting none-the-less.

dangrossman• 14 years ago

In TV commercials? Is the expectation that people will grab their phone, turn it on, launch a scanner app and run to their TV before the commercial ends?

gerggerg5• 14 years ago

QR codes are a massive phishing scam waiting to happen. I'll just go cover up the one at my bank with a sticker of the same exact size that links to my own site that looks exactly like the bank's site. Or maybe I'll put one on the ATM and see how long I get traffic before someone takes it down.

rglover• 14 years ago

Wow, never considered this but you're right. Scary. I'm glad I don't scan QR codes.

dchest• 14 years ago

Yes, but you can also put a sticker that says "Go to www.bankofamerica-manage-account.com". Although, it's easier to notice, of course.

burgerbrain• 14 years ago

QR codes present a much lower barrier to entry though. That means they can be acted on before it occurs to the target that they should think about what they're doing.

gerggerg5• 14 years ago

Though they do pose an interesting avenue for protest/civil disobedience. I could easily post QR codes on fast food restaurants that go to PETA or on the back of bus seats that link to pages about transportation system corruption.

Or perhaps what would be even more fun, is I could put download links for movies on their own posters.

phillmv• 14 years ago

Yeah… if only anyone actually used qr codes.

m_for_monkey• 14 years ago

Scanning software should handle this just like browsers the regular phishing sites. This won't eliminate the problem, of course, but it shouldn't be more dangerous then url faking.

gerggerg5• 14 years ago

'cept if people are trained to use them. It's harder to read a url on a mobile device. Plus i can change the url and put up a new sticker. Or just use a bit.ly redirect. And then browsers would have to have a specific link warning instead of just having domain granularity.

nostromo• 14 years ago

I also think QR codes could eventually be used by "shock site" trolls as in the bad ol' days on Slashdot. It's perfect because there's no way to inspect the URL before visiting the website. I've scanned a few QR codes on street lamps (for music events, etc.) and this is always in the back of my head.

Here's a much more fun example of a QR code prank: http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/302963_1... (totally SFW of course)

bri3d• 14 years ago

I do agree that QR codes can be used for trolling, but there's absolutely no reason you can't inspect the URL before visiting a link from a QR code - all that's stored in the QR code, after all, is the URL!

The trivial technical solution is a QR code reader which tells you where you're going before it sends you there, which ZXing (the Barcode Reader for Android) and several iOS QR readers already do.

ramanujan• 14 years ago

Here's the decode:

http://zxing.org/w/decode?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-a.aka...

lambda2• 14 years ago

No way to inspect the URL? What QR code reader do you use? I use Barcode Scanner, and when I scan a QR code, it always shows me the URL, and I have to click "Open browser" before it will actually browse to that URL.

jeffgreco• 14 years ago

This is a similar concern to the one that people kept raising about short URLs a year or two ago, but they're hardly uncommon now.

gerggerg5• 14 years ago

'cept I don't see any bit.ly links on Bank of America's website but I do see them using QR codes.

mortenjorck• 14 years ago

When I worked in marketing communications, we had a policy that anything that could be mistaken as final, approved assets in a printed piece had to be covered with a big, diagonal, magenta "FPO" label (for position only). Whether it was an inaccurate placeholder image, or a justinsomnia QR code, it had to be obvious it was not the final art.

pak• 14 years ago

This only supports my long running contention that normal people (outside of Japan) do not understand QR codes, and wherever they are printed, you would be better off writing a short URL. They are 1) opaque, 2) ugly, 3) impossible to memorize, 4) confusing to non techies and 5) no faster than typing the URL for the majority of viewers.

cdeonier2• 14 years ago

I agree with your first four points, but how did you arrive at your fifth point? QR Code applications I've used scan in about 1-2 seconds (the time it takes to auto-focus), which I think is probably faster than typing a URL.

ewoodrich• 14 years ago

If you include the time it takes the download (or find) a QR Code app, it makes sense. Considering that neither iOS nor Android come stock with a reader.

MrNibbles• 14 years ago

http://www.shouldiuseaqrcode.com/

rmassie• 14 years ago

It says no.

mkramlich• 14 years ago

QR codes are the new XML. great technology that's perfect for a certain role but being used in far too many other roles whether it's a horrible fit. But it's another buzzword for a resume!

simcop2387• 14 years ago

Not just another buzzword for a resume, I put one on my resume. I got more responses but no more offers doing that. It seemed to grab attention and then distract people.

franze• 14 years ago

ohkhey, that explains, why http://miniqr.com/justinsomnia is one of the most visited pages on miniqr, the QR code was scanned via http://miniqr.com/reader.php more than a 100 times. (a nice gallery of people scanning the QR code visible if you visit the first URL)

nowarninglabel• 14 years ago

Side note, Justin's an awesome guy, he just did a short stint as a co-worker at Kiva for the last 4-5 months, but is now working on a startup. We had a great laugh around the office last month when he was still here.

kenrik• 14 years ago

Funny. I used his QR code to test my barcode scanner when I first got it working in my iPhone App.

+1 pageview.

GigabyteCoin• 14 years ago

Odd, I thought it would have created a larger ripple after reading. See here: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://justinsomnia.org

muyuu• 14 years ago

There is a Vietnamese restaurant here in London where waiters have QR-codes in the back of their tees. Just last week I was there and some older guy was following a cute tall and slim waitress around with his iphone, trying to scan it. Creepy as fuck, but I guess it was justified by the QR code placement.

hamiltonchan• 14 years ago

One way to combat the issue is to create a "designer code", which is an intricately designed QR code. You can check out examples at http://www.paperlinks.com/designercodes.php. It is much harder for wrongdoers to mimic one of these.

Why does that QR Code go to justinsomnia.org?

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