Toshiba Corp. has developed software that lets shoppers use their phones to check the reputations of products on the Internet. Shoppers only need to use the phone's built-in digital camera to take a photo of the product bar-code label.

Commercial application is expected to begin in fiscal 2006 after further testing at electric appliance retailers and bookstores from February. The service will cover products that consumers are particularly concerned about, including consumer electronics products, food, books, CDs, DVDs and cosmetics. Bar codes on about 400,000 products can be scanned.

When the cellphone camera shoots the bar code, the information is automatically sent to a server, which then searches through blogs, or diary-like Web sites, for reviews.