Just a year and a half after it entered beta test, Microsoft’s color barcode system for mobile devices – dubbed simply “Tag” – hit “general availability” last week.

Dubbed by Microsoft – “barcodes-on-steroids,” the technology lets users hover their mobile phones over a code, whether on a product package, in a magazine or on a car, and link to further information.

The type of information served up may include a variety of things, from interactive video home tours for a real estate site to reviews of restaurants to promotional offers for products.
strong>Aaron Getz, general manager for Microsoft Tag wrote in the Official Microsoft Blog>:

“Today we’re announcing that Tag is coming out of beta and that basic use of Tags will be free of charge. This means you will be able to generate and use Tags that link to our standard scenarios, such as linking directly to web pages, and use the reader application at no cost.”

Getz claims that one billion tags have been printed by consumers and advertisers in the past 18 months, and 20 million magazines with tags reached consumers just in the month of April. Tag has been used in fields such as publishing, retail, advertising, transit, real estate, automotive, consumer packaged goods, tourism, and entertainment.

Microsoft also said that it will continue to enhance Tags going forward with new value-added features, including real-time location services as well as advanced reporting and analytics.

In addition, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter already have Microsoft Tag communities.

Getz said:

“Whether it’s Golf Digest demonstrating the perfect swing, Fearless Records connecting fans to new music and info about their favorite bands, ‘Avatar’ showcasing its movie trailer, or a Tag on your morning box of Wheaties, Tag is increasingly making the world around us clickable.”

Microsoft, though, isn’t the only company looking at using mobile devices to read barcodes. Last summer, Amazon introduced an application for Android-based phones which lets mobile users scan barcodes on items and upload them to Amazon.

Also, Apple’s iTunes Application Store offers barcode reading applications which operate on the iPhone so that users can do comparison shopping for items which they are interested in buying.

Obviously, Tags has a much wider charter than merely price comparisons and has Microsoft’s financial and marketing muscle propelling it – though as the company has proven time and again, this does not always add up to market dominance and success.