CLICKS: Remembering stuff with texting

(5/09/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) -- How many times do you walk past an ad or product and think, "I could use that," only to forget about it as a thousand other distractions fight for your attention?

The people behind qtags hope they have developed a way to help you remember.

"The premise behind qtags is to help people remember things, advertising, promotions, content, help them remember those things, and bookmark them so they're easy to find, easy to retrieve later on when they have more time to research and access them online," said Allison Gower president and founder of qtags.

So how does it work? Basically you see an ad or product you're interested in and if it has a qtag, then you text message the product name to 78247 which spells out qtags. Next thing you know, you'll have a text message back with more information for the product on your phone. You'll also have an account set up on the qtags web site that will save your searches so you can look them up later.

The New York City Police Department is already a qtags client.

"So, let's say you're attending a sports game up in New York City, at one of the various stadiums," explained Gower. "You may see them running recruiting ads, they're recruiting pretty heavily. They're running a 15 or 20 second spot telling people they're hiring and all throughout the spot they say, 'For more information, text NYPD to qtags.'

"[After texting] then immediately they get a message back to their phone with information, with the phone number, with a web link, so they've got it bookmarked."

Qtags can also get you free stuff too.

"We're working with a restaurant chain here in town that is sort of taking a viral approach. They're using qtags on a reader board outside of their outlets and it invites people to text," said Gower. "But in concept, they invite their customer to text a certain message to qtags, and the reply message they get gives them what to tell the register person to get a buy one-get one free offer."

How much is it going to cost you? Nothing. Qtags is paid for by the advertiser. The user won't have to pay for a thing other than if your cell phone provider charges for single text messages.

But we're talking cell phones here and most users don't want their numbers snatched up by companies for marketing purposes. Gower says qtags protects your info.

"The sort of two tenets of qtags are number one, consumer control, so the consumers control the interaction with the advertiser, and two, its spam free," Gower said. "Which means that when you text something to qtags, you get a reply message back, and then that's it. We do not sell the mobile phone numbers, the advertiser does not get access to them, and other advertisers do not get access to them."

Submit a cool site for ABC Clicks

(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•