The OfficeHours blog is nowhere near sad to report the demise of the QR code.

It's the squiggly little black-white pattern found on some store products or on assorted items. It was supposed to change how people bought products or obtained services.

And yes, it was a flop and we suspected that all along.

Some of the credit or blame for the QR demise is the superior advantages of new smartphone tools that let people ask questions directly (as with the iPod's Siri service) or use built-in visual search tools.

Here's an article that argues the "next big" search thing will be MVS -- for mobile visual search.

MVS, according to the blog entry at imediaConnection, will be a big deal: "The opportunities are boundless with MVS. Unlike two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes, MVS will have wrap-around and three-dimensional recognition capabilities. Even traditional advertising will be revitalized with MVS.

"For example, picture an interactive print campaign that incorporates MVS as part of a competition or game. Marketers can offer instant gratification in the form of videos, mobile links, coupons, or discounts as incentives for taking the best pictures of a particular product or logo."

For now, I'll accept that scanning things with a tool that can identify the object and find relevant links makes more sense than scanning a fuzzy wuzzy whirl.  We're not there yet, and no doubt over the next three or four years the opportunities for really smart ID-tools will produce some major improvements.