Microsoft Tag Leaves Beta, Adds Features, Goes Real-Time

Microsoft Tag, the barcode reading technology from Microsoft, is ditching its beta label, 18 months after its initial launch. According to news from the Tag team, there have been over one billion Tags printed worldwide and 20 million of those were in the month of April alone.

These high numbers are in part due to the many partnerships Tag has been involved in recently, including TV Guide, Wheaties, Entertainment Weekly and Women's Day, to name a few.

From this point forward, use of basic Tags will remain free. Anyone who wants to generate a Tag can go to tag.microsoft.com to do so. You can also track Tags and read about other Tag news there as well.

Businesses will have access to value-added services including advanced reporting, analytics and real-time location services. These will be added in the near future. 

A few more new features are also now being introduced, including:

• A device ID feature which lets marketers deliver personalized Tag experiences. For example, consumers can now receive customized content, such as a coupon or other offer from a retail outlet, based on Tags they’ve previously scanned
• A new .tag file format will make it easier to print and manage a large number of different Tags as part of a broad campaign deployment. Developers of professional printing programs can now generate the Tag graphic on the fly as part of their solution
• Localization in five new languages which include: French, Spanish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Italian
• A new beta Heat Map feature in the next few days, available in the Tag Campaign Manager, that will help companies better measure Tag usage by location and make more informed decisions about their Tag campaigns and overall marketing spend