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Google has started a new program, entitled “Favorite Places on Google”, which is pretty much a literal take on the term “window shopping.” They’ve mailed window decals to 100,000 businesses in the U.S., all of whom rank well among search results. The decals feature unique bar codes (also known as QR codes) that can be scanned by software available on pretty much every smartphone platform.

Scanning a barcode will take you to the Places page for that establishment (basically, Google’s take on Yelp). Doing so will grant you access to reviews, coupons, and the ability to star the business to check it out later. We’ll also soon be able to write reviews directly from the Places page as well.

On the iPhone, Apple has partnered with QuickMark (download from the App Store) to make their app free for the first 40,000 downloads. Normally, it costs $1.99. You can see a few select examples of Google’s Favorite Places here.

Google will be sending out more waves of decals in the future. They encourage businesses to make sure all of their information is relevant via their Local Business Center site, which will assure that their statistics are being properly counted. While good for consumers and businesses, this initiative is also good for Google because it gives them even more participating businesses in Places.

[Source: Google Blog]