Hemanth's Tech Blog

Admit it: seeing Microsoft release an application for Google’s operating system seems a little weird, doesn’t it? Still, it’s true; Microsoft has launched its first Android app, called Tag.

It’s an app that lets you link physical objects with content on the Internet. You point your smartphone’s camera at a specially designed barcode, and your smartphone opens a link to any sort of online content: video, image, or text.

At launch, Microsoft supported most mobile operating systems – Symbian, iPhone OS, BlackBerry – with Android also being on the list, but clicking on that link actually revealed a “coming soon” message. Now, Android users can try out the app too, but its significance lies in the fact that Microsoft has created an application for Google’s Android. It’s not that big of a deal, since the same app exists for the iPhone OS, another competitor to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and the upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating systems. Still, in the epic battle of Microsoft vs. Google, this is another small victory for the online giant from Mountain View.