To celebrate Internet Week 2010, the City of New York outfitted Times Square with giant QR codes earlier today. It's called "The City at Your Fingerprints" and 11 New York agencies participated in the interactive billboard initiative.
Times Square denizens could use their smartphone barcode scanning app to scan the QR codes -- which were featured in an animated sequence on the Thomson Reuters building in Times Square from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET -- and pull up information relating to specific agencies being featured.
Participating agencies included 311, NYC Department of Transportation, NYCulture Calendar, NYC Business Express and City of New York Parks and Recreation.
Most of the QR codes direct scanners to websites for more info, although some promise a free ringtone or chance to win tickets to a Times Square viewing of the Tony Awards. Unfortunately, the QR codes miss the mark and don't provide an optimized experience for scanners on their mobile devices -- which pretty much includes the entire target audience.
These QR codes are certainly impressive to behold and are a nice first try from NYC Media, the agency behind the effort. Still we hope future endeavors will yield QR codes that provide scanners with much more exciting and mobile-friendly content.
QR Codes in Times Square
[img credits: NYC Media]