Facebook Like invades the real world with Likify QR codes

The Like button has invaded the real world. A new service called Likify lets fans of your stuff show their appreciation in the only way that counts in 2010: a thumbs-up on Facebook.

The service lets you generate a unique QR code, a square black-and-white barcode that can be read by mobile phones. The first major name to get involved is Nike, which has placed QR codes in shop windows to promote a running campaign in Antwerp, home of the Belgians.

You can get in on the action too. Enter your Web address and a logo, and the URL of a page explaining things if you want. This generates your unique QR code. Download the code and print it on your product, your shop, your face or wherever you want.

Your fans then point their phone's QR-reading app at your product, shop or face, and the app will allow them to click a Facebook Like and a link to your website. They can even point their reader at the code on a computer screen -- to try it out, point your phone's QR reader at the code above, and you'll be given the option to like CNET UK. Or not, y'know, we're not fussed.

Soon we could be 'liking' things all over the show. Earlier this year, teenagers visiting an Israeli water park were issued with an RFID bracelet they could swipe on a 'like machine'. Meanwhile Crave kicks it old school with the 'like' stamp.

To 'like' a QR code, you'll need a QR barcode reader such as QR App for the iPhone, QR Code Scanner Pro for BlackBerry, Nokia Barcode Reader or Google Goggles on Android.

QR codes are starting to appear on posters, adverts and in print. A recent comic featuring Anders And -- that's Donald Duck in Danish -- embedded links to sound effects and animation. And we weren't joking about putting one on your face -- QR codes don't need to be as high-resolution as old-fashioned barcodes, so working QR tattoos are possible if done right. Just ask voice-over artist Liam 'the voice of the Bolton family' O'Toole, who has a link to his site inked on his arm.