I was JUST about to start hacking on something like this. A URL shortener for market and app store URLS that generates QR codes at the same time.<p>Dammit!<p>edit: I am even in mid-process of acquiring a .et domain so I could've had <a href="http://mark.et/whatever" rel="nofollow">http://mark.et/whatever</a>. Gah!
Kudos to Google on this. They've really been pushing QR and that's exactly the kind of support needed for it to reach critical mass. Reading QR codes is one of the few ways my Droid can school the iPhone...<p><a href="http://code.google.com/p/zxing/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/zxing/</a>
As far as I'm aware, there are a ludicrous amount of patents surrounding the use of QR-type codes that link to URLs. I remember NeoMedia in particular being singled out by the EFF for having a stupidly sample patent on the linking.<p>I'm now curious to see who wants to take on Google's strength when it comes to this game ;)
Something else to checkout with Google and QR Codes is Google's [QR Code Chart API](<a href="http://code.google.com/apis/chart/image_charts.html" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/apis/chart/image_charts.html</a>). It is the most dead simple way to create QR Codes that I've found.
There are just so many uses for this... Everyone from print+digital content providers (local magazines, papers, etc) to ma and pa IT shops can use such a service...<p>I know that it's nothing new, but the fact the Google is putting it out there pretty much ensures its wide-spread adoption (more so, anyways)...