This is just an April Fool’s joke (unfortunately).

It’s one of our biggest and most costly projects so far and we’re particularly proud to announce the offical launch of barcoo store view.

What started out as a vague idea two years ago in a pub in Berlin is available in the barcoo App and on www.barcoo.com starting today.

The thought behind it is as simple as it is ingenious: consumers can not only find any product in a store quickly and easily but can also be navigated through the store according to their shopping list.

To accomplish that we spent two years pushing a specially customized shopping cart through all medium-sized and big stores and took pictures of their inventory.

But it’s not only finding product that barcoo store view focuses on. You can also find out everything about the product and its manufacturer.

You can either scan the barcode or use the built-in augmented reality product recognition to view food traffic light, other barcoonaut’s comments and ratings or see how sustainable the manufacturer operates (meaning how good they treat the environment, society and their employees).

Before launching barcoo store view today we conducted a test period of three months with selected manufacturers. We received some good and some bad reviews, which we take quite seriously.

For that reason we offer a form where manufacturers can register to have their products blurred in the shelf view. The registration period for this begins today and will end on June 30th, 2011.

To activate the barcoo store view module in the barcoo app simply enter “barcoostoreview” in the field for text searches and you will find a new menu item with with the same name.

We look forward to any feedback and are grateful for any suggestions or ideas.

Your barcoo team.