Got a piece in the shop that's been run, and it has a QR on it so of course I scanned it out of interest. It would appear they used one of the URL shortening sites which is generally a good idea for QR codes BUT, when it bounces to the intended web page - it can't. I think what they tried to do was direct people to a search result on their server, and it just can't connect. Sooooo....
Is there any way, on their end, to have that shortened URL point to a NEW destination? They obviously can't generate a new QR code, or a new short link since that would entail reprinting the whole job. And that isn't even an option.
Lesson here: TEST your fuckin' codes & inks!! I bet they did, internally at least and decided it was good to go.
Quote from: Slappy on June 15, 2011, 11:16:26 AMIt would appear they used one of the URL shortening sites
So I think they're screwed. Don't those short URLs expire in a certain time period also?
I don't know if they expire but they are randomly generated and short of begging the service to redirect I don't think there is much they can do. Possibly they don't have port 80 open on their firewall pointing to the internal IP address of their web server. If they open that port and redirect it to their web server the shortened URL might start working.
(http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/nelsonmuntz.gif)
haw haw
Quote from: Joe on June 15, 2011, 11:31:36 AMI don't know if they expire but they are randomly generated and short of begging the service to redirect I don't think there is much they can do. Possibly they don't have port 80 open on their firewall pointing to the internal IP address of their web server. If they open that port and redirect it to their web server the shortened URL might start working.
Yeah, that's possible-I'll certainly suggest it. I
assume they have web people in charge of the backend, hopefully this was just a stupid dezigner episode.
Re: Links expiring - I know that's a concern, but it's not
my concern. Unfortunately, with the way these codes work, url shortening is practically a necessity. Plus, you get some very basic reporting & analytics through the generated urls as well.
Quote from: Slappy on June 15, 2011, 11:47:20 AMQuote from: Joe on June 15, 2011, 11:31:36 AMI don't know if they expire but they are randomly generated and short of begging the service to redirect I don't think there is much they can do. Possibly they don't have port 80 open on their firewall pointing to the internal IP address of their web server. If they open that port and redirect it to their web server the shortened URL might start working.
Yeah, that's possible-I'll certainly suggest it. I assume they have web people in charge of the backend, hopefully this was just a stupid dezigner episode.
It's still a long shot as it depends on the original URL they submitted for shortening. For example if the internal IP address of the web server is 192.168.1.100 and they submitted the URL http://192.168.1.100/myurl (http://192.168.1.100/myurl) it won't work. EVER!
I still suspect that the way their search page is set up, it's not capable to just link back to a set of parameters that return a results page. And that's what the lengthened url looks like to me, somebody trying to be clever & didn't think it all the way through. If they wanted to show a range of images related to this particular printed piece, then they should have just made a destination pages/pages and then retired it when the promo was over. Oddly, they have a url printed beneath the QR, and it goes to a Flickr Group. And that is certainly NOT what the QR represents. Weirdness.
Quote from: Slappy on June 15, 2011, 12:25:14 PMand it goes to a Flickr Group.
...customers will have some nice holiday snaps to look at, though. :evil: (warning: posting from home, 0550 hours, cold, dark... :rolleyes: )
Of all the QR codes I've done, I've had most of the ones that had shortened URLs to fail. Of course, it was in the generating phase that they failed, so we were able to correct it before it went to press.
It really depends on the app and the phone it's on.
That's odd, since the idea is shorter url = simpler QR created. Of course you can always tweak the error correction for codes that contain more info & get more complicated. You're right about dependence on the hardware & app used, I'm amazed at how many people use ONE phone to test (often the best one around, like an iPhone 4 that auto-focuses, etc.) and then they're shocked a 6-year old Blackberry can't read their code.
use one phone and only one app... :sarcasm:
some apps won't read QRs as good as others. Had one today, Scanlife wouldn't read it, but i-Nigma would.
who knows