Answer:
Kimball Tags were small cardboard tags found primarily on clothing, which were both printed with human readable information and also marked by a special pattern of holes for computer processing. Traditionally these tags would be collected at the point-of-sale and then sent off in batches to be processed at the end of the business day.
Obviously this system had some distinct limitations. The batch processing of tags made real-time business analysis difficult, and required specific handling and processing facilities to be maintained. The nature of the hanging cardboard tag made it unsuitable for using in damp environments and didn't fit well on sealed packages, so its adoption really was limited to the clothing industry.
Regardless of these limitations, while Google may be saluting the all-conquering barcode we should take a moment to remember the Kimball Tag, the Betamax of the retail industry.