Eighteen months of incubation and one billion printed Tags later, Microsoft Tag is finally coming out of beta.

(If you are not sure what Tag is, it’s basically an advanced mobile bar code technology that allows you to use some very nifty custom designs as 2D bar codes.)

The basic Tag services are still free of charge, including creating a standard Tag, reviewing standard analytics, and using the Tag Reader application. The Tag team also plans to add other value-added features over time such as advanced  reporting and analytics and real-time location services.

As part of this launch, Microsoft Tag also offers the following new features:

• A device ID feature will allow marketers to deliver a more personalized consumer experience across multiple Tags. 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.
• Tag has always been available worldwide and has been distributed and deployed globally. We have added localization in five new languages which include: French, Spanish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Italian.
• And finally, a beta Heat Map feature is to be introduced 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.

Here is a video of Microsoft Tag in action from TechFlash:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz-RCr8kVWY[/youtube]

What’s in it for developers?

• The Microsoft Tag and Tag Web Services API let you easily create and manage Tags programmatically. It is the easiest way to create many Tags.
• There is even a PHP library for PHP developers to easily interface with the Tag Web Services API.
• Over time, the Tag team plans to continue to roll out new API features.

As Facebook and others are beginning to experiment with bar code technologies, the adoption of advanced mobile bar codes like Microsoft Tag should rapidly increase over the next few years.

So what are you waiting for? Start using the developer APIs and start Tagging the world!

(Yes, this is the official Tag of the Innovative Singapore website.)

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