By "this thing" I mean the thing in the picture at left that looks like an overhead shot of a poorly designed hedge labyrinth like the one Jack Nicholson gets snowed-in in The Shining. Or a crossword puzzle designed by a drunk. Or a Rorschach test interpreted by Picasso during his Cubist period. You've probably started seeing them on ads and other places.

And, no, they're not a square barcodes. They're more like a barcode square(d) or cubed or some other geometric increase which explicates a QR code's expanded and versatile capabilities.