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Google Search By Number

Posted by Zonk on from the google,-where-are-my-car-keys? dept.

fizz writes "Well, Google has done it again. This time, simply enter any tracking number or id number into the Google search box, and Voila! You have a link to the shipper and tracking information. They have a funny little mom/son tech talk bit on the blog about this."

14 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Little by little by winkydink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google is becoming the one-stop shop for information. While I know their motto is, "Do no evil", I can't help but feel a little squeamish about it.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    1. Re:Little by little by WD_40 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've often wondered how long it's going to take, and how big Google will have to get, before it's considered 'evil' alongside Microsoft in the eyes of geeks.

      --

      "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925

    2. Re:Little by little by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I've often wondered how long it's going to take, and how big Google will have to get, before it's considered 'evil' alongside Microsoft in the eyes of geeks."

      When enough people like Google, it'll be fashionable to hate them. It makes for a small clique of geeks that think having an extreme opinion with intelligence. It's sort of like how the definition of sci-fi has been twisted to exclude Star Wars.

      Geeks can be snobs, too.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    3. Re:Little by little by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful
      It's sort of like how the definition of sci-fi has been twisted to exclude Star Wars.

      Ummmm .... the definition wasn't 'twisted' to exclude Star Wars. That was a literary definition which pre-dated Star Wars -- you know, by people like Asimov and his pre-cursors who were writing sci-fi back in the day. (eg, this or here)

      Star Wars does not attempt to fulfill the role of exploring how technology affects man.

      It is pure and simple Space Opera. Even Lucas will concede that point, as he never tried to make anything else.

      If you took the story of the Alamo, placed it on a moon, and made the technology involved in getting to the moon and fighting the war just simply background, that would not be sci-fi. A literal re-telling of a Shakespeare play in a loosely space-based setting, is not sci-fi.

      The fact that you don't like a definition which is both older than you and doesn't apply to Star Wars is something for you to reconcile.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Little by little by xv4n · · Score: 1, Insightful
      how long it's going to take ... before it's considered 'evil' alongside Microsoft

      May be when they start to charge for the service.

    5. Re:Little by little by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "That was a literary definition which pre-dated Star Wars -- "

      Psst. Star Wars is not a literary piece of work. It is a movie. Star Wars is considered sci-fi in the Movie Genre. Don't believe me? Look it up on IMDB. It's listed as Sci-fi there, too. The reason there's a difference between literary works and movies when it comes to genre is that the movies are far more visual. A sci-fi setting is very hard to ignore in a movie.

      The GP poster was right, there is a little too much effort being made here to discredit Star Wars. It's like saying that that a computer used at a library isn't a PC because it's not anybody's 'personal computer'.

    6. Re:Little by little by Pesticide01 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      About the time Google starts doing a crappy job like Microsoft.

      Google gives people what they want, and even comes up with things that are great ideas that most people hadn't thought of yet.

      Microsoft tries to push everyone into thier own little mold of what they want you to have. Thier Windows monopoly will only permit this so long before competitors gain enough competitive edge to start stealing flocks of sheep.

  2. Bear my children, please. They are heavy. by Leontes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google just keeps on being cool. I'm still looking at places I've lived in satellite maps, I'm trying to fill out my massively increasing gmail account, finishing editing some videos to upload and now I don't need to figure out what tracker number goes where? I love you, google.

  3. Re:Yet another reason Google is king by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ya-who?

    Don't be fooled. Yahoo is one of the fastest growing businesses. 3.575 billion in revenues for FY 2004. They're doing something right.

    I hope with all the enthusiasm and creativity at Google that they've got some people looking after the dollars with good sense. It'd suck to see them parceled apart in a couple years because they couldn't cut it and see MSN and Yahool pick up the pieces.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. This is too sketchy for me... by HardSide · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok maybe sketchy isn't really the word I should use here, but wasn't there a report on wired.com like two weeks ago about how google tracks your every move if you are logged into there service (gmail account). So they know exactly who you are (because of the email info) they know what you are searching for (everytime you type in a search query) and now all they need is to see what tracking numbers you put in...they see what you buy, and they can sell this info to massive companies, or hell to advertising companies and bombard you with spam or banners when you go on there site. That or they just wanna create a better service for all of us...(right) P.S. Yeh its a pretty far fetch idea, but then again anything is possible when you live in a time when Senators wanna tax you for every byte you download off the net.

  5. Google is becoming too niched by JanneM · · Score: 2, Insightful


    I'm seeing Google turning too much into a niche operator today. Most new stuff is focused on IE, the Windows platform and on US data. This may be the single largest combination of browser, OS and geography, but it is still a very small niche in the big scheme of things. Unfortunately, today google seems to focus harder onto that niche, not less.

    Lots more space for nimble competitors, I guess. And at least for the precence-style apps here, like mobile maps, underground GPS, line-based chats and so on, Google doesn't exist, period.

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  6. Re:Way up on your horse again? by Fortyseven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You say "nobody said it was new", and then call it 'news' toward the end. By definition things on the front page of a news site are...well, you know. ;)

    Anyways, just because you and a handful of others didn't know about this feature, doesn't mean it belongs on the front page.

    I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of really interesting tidbits in, say, world history that neither of us are privy to: that doesn't mean someone should submit or accept a front page post about them.

    And just for future reference, in the hopes of avoiding further seperate front page posts on each of these long-implemented features: Google can also help you correct wrongly spelled words (including links to a dictionary entry), let you search through a catalogue of images, and I hear they've even got their own web-based email service.

    I heartily encourage you, 'Zonk', and the rest of the Funky Bunch to give a healthy once over of the very much hidden Google features page, just chock full of similar surprises. Ciao!

    --
    BytesTemplar.com
  7. Re:Really old news by jamesl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OK, we'll try this again.
    http://google.blogspace.com/archives/001089

    An extra "/" showed up in the original post.

  8. Why doesn't Google... by shadowmatter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... just put a little "Did you know?"-like tooltip at the bottom of the main search page? (Much like the default Firefox page.) It doesn't even have to appear every visit -- just 1 out of 5 times, 1 out of 10 times, etc. Regardless, the average web user will visit Google often enough to pick up on some new tricks. Making these features well known will only reinforce people coming back to Google.

    I've known about this Google feature for awhile now. The calculator feature is also very useful. So useful you'd think regular Google users would know about it by now, but every time I use it in front of someone, they always seem suprised and I end up teaching something new.

    - sm