Is “PaperClick” really Cuecat?

Do cuecats have nine lives? Remember the CueCat? One of the most embarassing technologies of the web era? It was based on the premise that people who see something in print and need to reference related content on the Internet would rather scan in a barcode than type in a URL. After burning through a reported two hundred and fifty million dollars, the backers of the invention proved that even if you give away millions of really stupid looking barcode readers in the shape of a plastic cat, people would rather type in a URL. To me, the Cuecat is the perfect symbol for technology designed to help converge print and digital media in a really cool way that only a miniscule sliver of people will ever care to adopt. Less elegant in practice than in concept, the seemingly helpful device is but a Rube Goldberg-like substitution for what in reality is a quite simple function: say, typing a URL into a browser.

Well, as if to prove that lots of people actually slept through some of the more bizarre and strange ideas of the late 90s, another company has come out with a weirdly similar product, the Paperclick for Cellphone. For use with a phone that has a camera, a user “only needs to take a picture of a UPC code, EAN code or PaperClick code, and the PaperClick For Cell Phones software automatically decodes the barcode and takes the user directly to the associated web site using the phone’s built-in web browser.”

This is how PaperClick works. Don’t believe me? Visit their site.

To demonstrate the technology, the company behind PaperClick, Neomedia Technologies (OTC:NEOM, today’s closing price: 13.5¢), has set up an affiliate store at Amazon.com (although this link goes to the rexblog affiliate store) that works something like this, according to the company: You’re in a Barnes & Noble and see a book you like. Instead of purchasing the book right there, you take a picture of the book’s ISBN with your camera phone and (they’re not too clear in the press release on how this part works) you download or e-mail the picture of the ISBN to their Amazon affiliate store and comparison shop for the book. “It’s kind of a high-tech version of the Santa Claus at Macy’s® sending Christmas shoppers to Gimbels in the classic movie, ‘Miracle on 34th Street’,” the company’s ceo “mused” (they actually used the word “mused”) in the press release announcing the concept. (Not to get too technical, but isn’t this metaphor a bit mis-guided? If I recall the movie, Macy’s did not HAVE the product so Santa sent the customer to Gimbels. In the bookstore scenario, the product is not only in stock, it MUST be in stock for the technology to work. It would be like Gimbels not having a product on its showroom floor but there’s one the warehouse, so they send the customer to Macy’s to try out the product with the understanding that if the customer likes it, they will come back across the street and purchase it from Gimbels which will ship them the product later from the warehouse.)

One of the markets the PaperClick folks are going after is magazine advertisers that will want to include a barcode on their ads that someone can take a picture of that will lead them to the advertiser’s website (again, which apparently, PaperClick believes is a user experience more natural than typing in a URL).

The good news is that the PaperClick for Cellphones people will learn this idea makes no sense without burning through anywhere near the same amount of money the Cuecat folks torched.

rexblog ranking: Just like the Atlantic Monthly (see the previous post), I really don’t think rankings are that important but I want to have one anyway as that’s what readers want to read about. So, for your ranking entertainment pleasure, I would like to report that the rexblog was yesterday’’s 29th most-read weblog on a Userland-hosted Manila weblog (is that like being the number four college in the sunbelt conference?). As the “yesterday” ranking page is not permanent, I’ve stored a screen grab of it here for historic (hysteric) purposes.

Rank (as in smelly) rankings: On Sunday, I blogged the news that Atlantic Monthly was issuing a college ranking issue filled with stories about how one should ignore such rankings. Today, the NYT joins (reg. required) in the coverage of the reluctant rankings. The focus on articles about why such rankings is ridiculous within the context of a magazine marketing effort supporting the “First Annual” college rankings. It seems an example of what I’ll call the “Geraldine Promotion Strategy.” This is when a magazine rips off another magazine’s proven promotional gimmick while declaring (ala Flip Wilson), “the devil made me do it.”

In fairness to Atlantic Monthly, apart from the disingenuous hype, the package of stories look very intriguing. And online, the magazine’s website has some flashbacks to archival stories on related topics. Especially insightful is this piece from May, 1892, (that’s right, 1892) on “The present requirements for admission to Harvard College.” It’s a long article, but should be required reading for any current high school senior complaining about how difficult the application process is now.

AOL huns pillage Boise in PR rampage: The Idaho Statesman reports on AOL’s “Forgive-Us for Being Idiots Fest, 2003″ in Boise. According to local resident Peggy Sawicki, “This is overkill….Obviously they have too much money.” The rexblog would like to applaud Ms. Sawicki on her insightful punditry. (via Marketingwonk.)

Magavangelist: The MPA has hired an advertising agency veteran to tout to that community the brilliance of advertising in magazines, according to Mediapost’s Larry Dobrow. Harlan Schwarz’s title is NOT magavangelist, but it should be.