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Using old media to access new media! |
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Newspaper links to e-commerce with mini bar codes. Beginning in early May, The Charleston Post and Courier made history by becoming the first daily newspaper to physically link its print edition to additional on-line content through the use of technology provided by GoCode The Post and Courier took the technology a step further recently, using GoCodes to link its print edition to its e-commerce site, ShopCharleston.net, which resulted in the world's first bar code-based e-commerce purchase from a daily paper.
GoCode, Inc. claims it provides the only barcode that fits within printed lines of text, making it the world's smallest bar code standard. GoCode enables users to make instant e-commerce purchases directly out of a newspaper, magazine or catalog, without typing or calling a toll free number. The Post & Courier's GoCode-enabled e-commerce came about as a result of a print ad featuring products offered on-line by ShopCharleston.net . The ad included a GoCode next to the featured items, which caught the eye of Post & Courier subscriber John F. Walters. Walters, who learned via ultrasound the previous day that his wife was expecting twins, decided to experiment with his recently acquired GoCode Reader. "I shot the code, and the purchase was processed automatically,'' said Walters, an emergency medicine physician. "The computer drilled down directly to the vendor's page at the ShopCharleston site, and my personal information was automatically filled in. All I had to do was shoot the GoCode under the product and the roses were on the way to my home address.'' ShopCharleston.net is powered by an e-commerce platform developed by PC2WEB.com , which offers a suite of enabling tools for publishers, telecoms, broadcast, and cable operators. ShopCharleston.net provides e-commerce services for a wide variety of Charleston merchants, many of which have no internal e-commerce capabilities. "I believe what we have here is a perfect example of how print media and technology can work together,'' said Bruce Coy, president of PC2WEB.com . "We're working with newspapers because they naturally aggregate local buyers, and our platform supports local sales. We're working with GoCode, because its Reader is easy to use and the tiny bar codes fit seamlessly into our print layouts.'' Your Opinion Counts!
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Updated: 17 Feb 2006 .
