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Google changes logo - traffic to our site spikes

44 points by chexov ↗ HN
Was wondering how our little app could see 100 fold increase in uniques just overnight. Simple reason: Google changing logo to depict an ITF bar code - tons of people going to wikipedia articles on bar codes. We have some referral links originating from wikipedia (mostly submitted images of EAN and UPC bar codes).

Too bad the bar code logo will go away - these are our Andy Warhol threw a "15 Minutes of Fame".

http://barcoderobot.com

22 comments

[ 6.8 ms ] story [ 65.6 ms ] thread
oneplusone
So, what does the logo say exactly? Just "Google"?
jrockway
Yes. Yay for cell phones that can scan barcodes.
Torn
Are there any iPhone apps that will read traditional barcodes such as the one on the Google homepage?

All the ones I've seen seem to either only read the fancy 2D datamatrix-type ones, or go off to some price comparison webservice and don't actually tell me anything about the barcode.

Edit: Just tried zXing from the app store, and it failed all of the pictures I took in good light conditions...

chexov
I heard about Red laser barcode scanner, but did not try. The problem with EAN/UPC (grocery) symbols is that they are optimized for laser scanning - flat bed, one laser pass, poor light conditions etc ... QR, 2D barcodes are optimized for imaging where a complete (or incomplete) picture is analyzed.
jrockway
"Barcode Reader" on Android, which uses the zXing library, worked for me. (I don't know how the iPhone app works, but Barcode Reader continuously takes pictures until it recognizes a barcode. It seems to work quite reliably.)
Torn
Ah, it seems the iPhone one 'barCodes' based on zXing only supports QR barcodes. Eep.
stewiecat
RedLaser from Occipital (a techstars company, I think) is in the iphone app store.
chexov
Obviously the comments on the site are most welcome ...
blantonl
What is your revenue model? I can't initially tell if you offer premium services, or if the service is totally free.
chexov
(vector) EPS files are sold over PayPal - no subscriptions yet, was a side project really but seems to break even the hosting charges etc ...
joubert
Interesting - type in barcoderbot in google search. (I misread your URL so stumbled on this google nugget).
chexov
Yes, actually finding a good domain name for this purpose is difficult - so ended up with the long one. Best written in camel case: BarcodeRobot
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alanstorm
I've assumed half the reason Google's been on a custom logo binge is to drive users towards specific search terms and boost AdWords revenue. Show an obscure geeky thing one week to keep the baying nerd masses happy, show Michael Jackson the next.

It's nice to see "the little guy" getting a boost as well!

jazzychad
As an exercise with PHP and the gd library, I wrote a couple of scripts a while ago that would generate UPC-A and UPC-E barcode images on the fly. I've always been fascinated with barcodes and scanners that read them.

http://jazzychad.com/barcode/

chexov
Nice, most complicated part for me was getting images "up to the spec.", since I am mostly competing with desktop software, that pre-install drivers and fonts my EPS files needed to embed OCR fonts (it took tons of time to produce them accurately).

Here is the proud result (rasterized back from PostScript):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ean-13-5901234123457.png