A visual beacon, such as a Quick Response (QR) code or other type of artificial visual beacon is identified based on a coarse position and content information, and optionally, the type of the visual beacon. For example, position may be based on latitude and longitude, e.g., from a satellite positioning system, or the CellID from a cellular network. The content information may be based on a sampling of the content before or after decoding. The content information may alternatively be all of the decoded content or an image of the visual beacon. Thus, for example, a mobile platform may generate a visual beacon identifier using the position and content information, which is transmitted to a navigation assistance server. The server can access and transmit to the mobile platform a navigation assistance message associated with the visual beacon identifier. If no visual beacon identifier is found, the server may enter the information.