Google recently announced that they will start displaying QR Codes in stickers in front of stores which will allow people to “zap” the code with their cell phone and do some cool things like write a review, receive a coupon, or go to a website.

QR Codes have been around for a while but I figure something like this will start to gain in popularity now that Google has put a stake in the claim. As a BlackBerry user who has BlackBerry Messenger 5.0, this is also pretty cool because we can take advantage of these QR Codes immediately. Don’t worry if you don’t have it, just  check this announcement by Google and they offer plenty of other options for cell phone users.

Take the image below:

dudchenko_website_QR-Code

If you open up BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 and select “Add Contact,” and then “Scan Invitation Barcode from another BlackBerry” you’ll be presented with the same view you get when you want to take a photo. Just point your phone at the image above (make sure you get the whole image to appear in the screen) and the phone will do the rest. No need to click the photo, the system will open a new browser when it reads the code and take you to the super-secret website (hint, it looks a lot like this one).

Want to make your own bar code? Check out Kaywa where you can generate a code that opens a website, offers a textual message, or even provides a phone number.