Beacons 2.0

It looks like the Apple iBeacon standard has just got a serious competitor: Google Eddystone. Not that Eddystone is this week's breaking news. It was released some time ago and even before the Google beacon format had been promoted as the Physical Web.

But the big news is Google Chrome, version 49. Available in beta now. It natively supports Eddystone URL-broadcasting beacons. What is the big deal here? Beacons no longer require an app or any Cloud platform.

Here is how it works. A Bluetooth Smart radio (which can be a standalone product or can already sit in another product like a lamp) broadcasts a URL. A good, old, well known URL. A phone with the Chrome browser installed (pretty much 90% of phones today) picks up the broadcasted URL and pops a system notification. A user - if interested - clicks on the notification and opens the URL.

The URL can point to anything. A bus stop may point to the timetable URL. A painting in a museum may point to the web page with more information. A car may point to the driver's Uber profile. In each case no special App is needed. A phone passing by will notify the user a contextual information is available. The user will get the information through the URL. Which may be a web page displayed in the Browser. Or may be a custom URL handled by a custom app (if installed).

This is revolutionary. Finally Bluetooth Beacons are handled natively by (almost) all phones on the Planet. And the information format they broadcast is what the WWW is build of. This is a huge win for Eddystone. Welcome to Beacons 2.0!