App enables consumers to attach their own comments to product barcodes

Open Label is an effort that aims to crowdsource product information, allowing consumers and organizations to keep each other informed about products of virtually every kind.

We’ve already seen numerous mobile apps that deliver product-specific information when consumers scan a barcode — Fooducate for nutrition data, for instance. Open Label, however, is an effort that aims to crowdsource the product information available this way, allowing consumers and organizations the world over to keep each other informed about products of virtually every kind. Similar in many ways to Stickybits, Open Label enables anyone to scan a product barcode and append their comments. Using the Open Label iPhone app — which is now in private beta — consumers simply scan a product’s UPC barcode to open its virtual “Open Label”. There, they can read what others have said about the product, and they can also attach their own comments as to why it is or isn’t worth buying, focusing in particular on topics such as the manufacturer or producers’ environmental, safety, health or animal rights records. If the product’s maker has a poor record for sustainability, for instance, users can note that on its Open Label. Conversely, users of the app can also ask questions about particular products, and — in Twitter-like fashion — they can “follow” the people and organizations they trust as well. The video below explains Open Label’s premise in more detail:

Brands around the world have been gaining favor with the public for some time by becoming increasingly transparent. Now it seems the crowds are taking matters into their own hands by drawing back the curtain on those that haven’t. With that in mind, how could you help boost your brands appeal through a little transparency? Spotted by: Smith Alan