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Google Search By Number
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."
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
Favorite Hidden Google Features?
Just because someone's mom doesn't know something about Google doesn't make it new.
Most of /. probably knew about this, since it's been around since at least February 2004
That page contains the request Are there other types of numbers you'd like Google to search? Please email us at suggestions@google.com.
Today's page contains Are there other types of numbers you'd like Google to search? Please contact us.
If in the last year Google received suggestions for other numbers to be searched, they do not seem to be implemented today. Drivers Lic #'s, SSN's, Lic Plate #'s, are not likely to be included. What numbers could Google search?
Test signature: Brett Walker
Google has had this feature for a very long time. I don't see how this is news.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Dupe... This was in Slashdot long time ago... Lazy to look for it and prove it....
I have been using the tracking since then, its nice.
You could do this at least on February 2 of last year.
even cooler: check out the first google map hack (it even blew the pants of the google maps crew):
http://paulrademacher.com/housing/
Ya-who?
Put them into Google every day to see if they're on the move...
I wonder if you could then call the shipper and tell them the ship-to address is wrong and have whatever it is sent to your house...
Someone's bound to try it, i betcha.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
User types "666" into the Google search box, hits Enter. "AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
If you enter their website traditionally, UPS requires that the user click the annoying "By selecting this box and the Track button, I agree to these Terms and Conditions." Google bypasses this. What are the legal ramifications of this bypass?
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.
I also like that I can type weather frederick md and get my weather or define:pragmatic and get a definition.
http://www.busyweather.com/
No support for DHL yet.
I typed in 42, and the first search result was The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything!
Anyway, I tried searching on area codes. It works well except I would expect it to link to Google Maps. Instead it gives me Whitepages.com. Seems a bit odd. Why would Google want to link to their own map?
This is not news, Google has had this feature since Dec 2003! Just look at Nov-Dec entry for 2003 in Google timeline
It's been like two hours since I saw a Google article.
As many have stated, this is old news. What is really surprising to me is that when I enter my ham callsign I do not get a lookup option.
I've been using this to track packages for a year. The internet archive says it's been available since February of '04.
But anything on the Google blog is news, I guess.
MOD PARENT UP! Very cool housing search tool.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
... my car keys. So what good is it?
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
Google search on "google package tracking" yields this December 11, 2003 Google Weblog post.
http://google.blogspace.com/archives/001089/
In the mean time, I'm using my own community (see signature); but if Google makes something like Yahoo! Chat and MSN Messenger, maybe named "Google Messenger" and "Google Chat", that's it! I wouldn't get out of Google ever again (until they screw it like certain companies).
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.
I think this is kind of useless anyways, since if you sent something you (hopefully) know which company you sent it with. And most companies have tracking as a feature on their web sites, so what's the point?
"People's problem is not that they are mortal, but that they are suddenly mortal" Terry Pratchett
One assumes Slashdot will publish at least one Google story every day, because Google is "the coolest application out there". If there is no story to be published a dupe will do.
I think by now Google has surpassed Linux in the hacker's minds as "The real thing". Not that it isn't cool, but it is quite amazing to see how a good product can gain a quasi-sainthood status among educated audiences when coupled with the right marketing strategies.
"Well, Google has done it again"
Yes, they managed to get on slashdot for something really, really old.
It's strange though, if you go to UPS's tracking site, you have to check a box saying that you agree to the "terms and conditions", but you don't need to do so when you google....strange....
Monstar L
Having this information crawled and therefore easily available to a world-wide audience makes me nervous. What if you are having passports or some other ID material shipped? Or medical tests? Interception is now that much easier. I know the protection before was via obscurity, i.e. the information was not crawled, but, personally, I think that shippers should not make this information crawlable.
-LLM
Annoy a Conservative...
I am not blaming Google of course, it is the fault of the university and the professor.
i know -- its a killer app for CL / Maps.
some trolling hamster modded my post offtopic..
other projects i'd like to see:
maps.google.com / live 'Map of the Internet'
maps.google.com / live google news blurbs
i think that this is actually an old feature. i know that i've used the numeric stuff before.
a -search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=f irefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
like for instance if you type in the word "pi" the first thing returned is the value of pi
http://www.google.com/search?q=pi&sourceid=mozill
i've also used it to find out information about cars via the VIN number.
Is it 5:30 yet?
If you're going to report on breaking Google features, shouldn't you also mention that they came out with an e-mail service? a separate search for Linux-related topics? a way to shop and compare prices?
This is what happens when geeks get billions of dollars (from going public) and have no parental supervision. :)
Sugapablo
Mysterious Area 51 revealed by Google maps? http://www.livejournal.com/community/the_unexplain ed/37956.html#cutid1
Is it just me, or has this week been extremely google centric??
I hope they've already proofed this against the spammers who are sending out the bogus tracking numbers... Imagine typing in a number and being sent to some pharmacy page or worse.
I hope Google checks out whatever shippers the agree to do this for.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. Nobody said it was new
2. It was hidden! So to a lot of people, it is new. It is new to me, and I use google every day.
I don't understand why this making the news is such a dork-irker. Geeks on their high-horses. *sigh*
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Hehe, I'm just kidding about the last one.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
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.
I'm waiting for the day I can type in "F/22/Southern California" and get a list of interested, available women. =P
C'mon Google, help us out! =]
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
I wish I'd thought of this years ago. You mean I can avoid paying income tax just by earning nothing? I'll tell the payroll department right away! Think of all the money I'll save!
Well, not exactly. It's a very cool hack. My #1 feature request is to link it to Google's satellite maps also.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Give me a break. Google has done this for nearly 2 years now.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Microsoft recently introduced Windows 95, an upgrade that completely replaces your old DOS/Win3.1 combo.
Give me a break. God, I feel like I'm in some sort of trippy time warp or something...
And what's scarier than posting ancient news that was supposed to be common knowledge? The handful of replies that also seem to think it's new.
My head won't stop spinning... whoooa...
BytesTemplar.com
Wouldn't you rather track using RSS?
g eTracking/
http://www.young-technologies.com/Utilities/Packa
I've been using this feature for at least a year. Possibly more. Geesh.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
I tried entering a tracking number from Canada Post, our national mail carrier and no dice on google.
Nice feature. I work in a shipping dock and i get couriers here all day delivering their stuff. Some packages are unnamed, some get here when i'm gone so i don't know who shipped it. Chances are, though, that there's a sticker on the box that says who the shipper was, who is it supposed to go to and the P.O. and tracking number. However Google supports only major couriers such as USPS, UPS, Fedex and others among those lines. It will never be complete, either since local couriers are way too numerous and small to be important to Google. Also, i only get FedEx and UPS delivering here, so if the tracking is starts with "1Z", i know it's UPS, if it's all digits, it's FedEx. Those two are about 1/4 of all my incoming packages, and Google doesn't support the others. So it's a nice innovation, but mostly useless for someone who has a minimum experience with couriers.
A computer makes it possible to do, in half an hour, tasks which were completely unnecessary to do before.
Did anybody notice this :
Enter anything you want to search on www.google.com input box, click "Google Search" and VOILA!! Google displays the webpages containing those keywords!!!
That's badass. Another reason why I wish they'd hurry up and roll out global google maps.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
>It's strange though, if you go to UPS's tracking
>site, you have to check a box saying that you agree
>to the "terms and conditions", but you don't need to
> do so when you google....strange....
Does this mean Google has agreed to the terms and conditions on your behalf? Without a signed, notarized Power of Attorney that might mean Google has taken responsibility for you adhering to those terms. Or it might mean that Google has different terms.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Wow! That is a very great idea. Why does it only have certain cities though? They should tie in MLS listings and let you search by any city.
Morphing Software
I expect most slashdotters have already known about google shipping number lookups, etc, for months now, but I noticed a new feature on google's feature page just the other day... pre-fetching! It looks to be a well thought out technology, hopefully the other browsers will adopt the handling too, and it will grow and make surfing the internet practically instantaneous (yes, I do realize that it only pre-fetches and headers with the pre-fetch keyword, but I can dream)
It's so old that they had it when Yahoo! was still funding Google and Google was starting to do the Yahoo!! backend. It still works in Yahoo! btw.
'I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds'
Since Gmail is already scanning my messages, why doesn't it pick tracking numbers out of my e-mail? Then it could do something useful and give me a link to the shipper.
Yorkspace
I want Google to add sports scores, box scores, etc. to their interface. i don't mean like a sports portal, I mean enter:
"score: indians" and it will give me the box score of the current or last game played.
"score: indians WS" and it will list all of there box scores for the season and the schedules of there upcoming games against each other.
Dates can be added for more in-depth searching. Maybe enter "score: Hafner 2-3 HR" and it will list all of the times that this has been his line in the box score.
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
I have been using this all week and I've already made three appointments to see apartments that I found on there. It is insanely useful.
The Google Maps sightseeing blog doesn't quite have its utility, but is hours of entertainment nonetheless.
I started dragging the map and was amused by how the Atlantic Ocean kept going and going and going... I then went back and dragged down and noticed the conspicuous absence of South America.
Nevertheless, it was kind of fun, even if they didn't have any listing for Charlottesville, VA, even though it is the best city in the US in which to live.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
This has been around for a while, certainly a year or so; why is it on /. as a new item?
I've never really wanted to mod down a frontpage post...until now. Come on /.
Moo.
If you have ever tried to locate drivers or a manufac for an unknown piece of hardware, you can find the brand and model with its FCC number, which is required to be on the hardware. Good for computer geeks!
Firefox has had Smart Keyword bookmarks for a while. Right click on any form entry field and click "Add a keyword for this search."
I just type "ups <tracking num>" and go; no need for Google. Also useful for dictionary/thesaurus.com, stock quotes, wikipedia, helpdesk tickets at work, Bugzilla, Google Local, Google maps, whatever. Some of these are built in already. After some initial getting-used-to, it's incredibly handy.
I just typed the tracking number for a package I'm expecting into Google. Sure enough, I get a link to the tracking site of the courier company. But the page also contains another link, which reads "Free hardcore porn if you click here!" and takes you to a page filled with 3- and 4-number and -digit groups that has been used to spamdex a porn site into Google (the page in question is currently safe for work, unless your employers disapprove of promiscuous associations between small integers, but it links to the main page of the porn site, which probably isn't. And maybe you don't want (name of pornsite deleted) showing up in the traffic logs on your company firewall). The spamdexers seem to have done their work well. Having done some experiments, I now suspect that almost any UPS tracking number entered into Google will bring up a page containing a link to that particular porn site. Can't beat that for free advertising.
If you put as much effort into wiping the drool off your chin as you put into that post then you must be soaked by 10 AM.
I am the inventor of the hilarious refrigerator alarm.
seems hes the only one who's msg gets posted here. Isnt this news a bit too OLD!!
The obvious work-around is to bookmark the page; but I use lots of different computers, and this means a bookmark for each one, AFTER I go through this nonsense.
So now I can just go to google.com, and type in the tracking number from there. The heck with ups.com and their lame website.
So thanks for the reminder. It's helped me out already today.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
The funnyness of that mother/son thing was a bit overhyped. Like mom knows what Google is to begin with :)
Butthead Vendor
For something that is actually new, check out Google Q&A
I asked it how many ping pong balls fit in an olympic sized swimming pool, but it doesn't know that.
This came in handy in January during the MIT Mystery Hunt, for this puzzle. Nobody knew what to do with the 12-digit number, but Googling it revealed it as a FedEx tracking number.
Unfortuantely, one of the teams stole the package from the room it was in.
holy crap! this is definitely the coolest hack I've seen this week!
This is not news. This functionality has been here since late 2003...
See Google's timeline...
... 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
Wow! That is a very great idea. Why does it only have certain cities though? They should tie in MLS listings and let you search by any city.
The hack uses Craigslist for its real estate data. I would bet that Craigslist is much more open.
Just like middle-men of all kinds, the reality industry is feeling a little threatened by people bypassing them via the internet and not paying the associated high commissions. It wouldn't surprise me if they're touchy about how you access MLS.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." - Lord Acton
It's not so bad that its not a new feature but its certainly not even a new stroy. I guess people really do just monitor the google blog XML feed and just submit a story everytime there is a new post. The same could also be said about The Register as well.
Google has had this feature for a very long time. I use the UPS/FedEx tracking number thing all the time. I've also searched by UPC codes. Very great things.
This has to be the most delayed reaction to a feature that was new over a year ago, EVAR!!
slashdot is losing the edge... what, do you guys sleep all day now and rest on the laurels of advertising?
What purpose does this serve? If I have a tracking number for my package, presumably I know what shipper it's from. How is it at all beneficial to me to go to Google's website to look it up instead of the shipper's site?
Google's example patent search:
Bathtub overflow control device
Abstract
A control mechanism for use with a bathtub having a drain opening and an overflow opening, with the drain opening having a stopper moveable between open and closed positions.
Is this a hint? Will we have google bathtubs that automatically grow over time so they never overflow?
you remember your tracking number but don't remember the shipping company.
Seriously wouldn't be a lot more useful if you could enter your name and some keyword that meant "check for any packages with all the major shipping companies"?
Why doesn't Craigslist expand and obsolete MLS then? I'm moving soon to a city not listed there and a tool like this would be very useful for driving around and looking at houses.
Morphing Software
Search by number exists for more than a year! Why is this even posted here?
I was wondering what would happen if I used that MIT random content generating gizmo to submit articles to slashdot. I expect that the number of the random articles tweaked to seem to praise linux and google that are accepted would outnumber the ones that are actually usefull IT news.
DNS/WHOIS... /. Karma...
Search by
>
Google saves every inquiry made to it. They a screenin their lobby showing random searches. You dont want to be advertising the fact you are looking for a particular 10-digit SSN. Type something like 1234567000...1234568000 to search for the SSN number between that range.
I guess that google will be doing my homework for me now even more then before.
"when freedom is outlawed, the outlaws will be free"
I get all these emails with bogus tracking numbers in them, and a link to a phishing site. What does Google come up with for them?
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Typing each of the first ten numerals into google gives:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Here is another version of a Craigslist/GoogleMaps Mashup and features the ability to view the Satalite images also...
It is based on the Standalone Google Maps which has a hosted version at MyGmaps.
"I have a cunning plan..."
typing too fast
"I have a cunning plan..."
I personally couldn't care less that people are noticing that google is coming out with more and more features. So what if it's come so that you no longr have to visit other search engines? Rather than visit many other places, I'd rather just stick to one place which will provide me all the info that I need.
- Teja
In my current job I find myself looking up RFCs fairly frequently. I have found that typing the RFC number prefixed by "RFC" (e.g. "RFC2396") into Google and pressing "I'm feeling lucky" always brings me directly to the RFC (rather than a discussion about it or a reference to it). My bookmarks list is slowly shrinking and converging on just one entry: Google.
Sheesh. Apple's shipment status tells me that they have shipped a new iPod mini to me via TNT today. But Google does not search TNT tracking ID's. And for some reason even TNT's own webpage is unable to find it.
It's a long time to wait...
“Wait for Hurd if you want something real” –Linus
and I wouldn't be suprised if there were other search engines that do this. All the "search engines" are really doing is packaging shortcuts in this case. They have no information about you packages, they just skip to the meat.
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
Using this logic, retirement plans like 401Ks and RRSPs are evil, too. You're deferring taxes by buying one. Tax deferment is a perfectly acceptable tact. Stock options are only worth something once the stock price goes up and the gain is realized in actual dollars. You can't pay tax on theoretical earnings, only on real ones. Unquestionably, there are advantages to be had in some circumstances to be paid in stock options, but to think that it's some perfect panacaea to avoid paying taxes is naive. Besides, in most jurisdictions, consumption taxes earn as much money for government, or more, than income taxes do.
What really pisses me off is that I wrote that before realizing that, in fact, the post in question was a knee-jerk reaction to someone at the Google Blog having a less than savvy mom.
Which makes me wonder why someone who didn't know about the ancient package tracking number voodoo spell was reading Google's blog... I mean, isn't that a bit more savvy than knowing about a basic feature?
And shouldn't an editor (however new) of the biggest geek site on earth be savvy about it already and skip over it?
And what about the blogger in question? He's gotta be savvy: yet he chose to keep his mom in the dark about these things for well over a year.
Poor unsavvy mom.
Savvy, savvy.
(Savvy.)
BytesTemplar.com
As long as we're living a year in the past, I've got a hunch this Google IPO is going to go through the roof!
-bazily
Why cut IT when your office space costs $3/sf? gibso
Even better is the FCC's page for doing fccid searches! https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ GenericSearch.cfm
(xxx)yyy-zzzz
and it gave me my father's name, profession (MD), street address (though we use a post office box not listed there) and links to three maps sites including google's.
But that's not all! Click on the Google Maps link and I get a personalized map with a cartoonish text bubble pointing to where my house is!
And guess what? A link inside that text bubble takes you to a driving directions page. Okay, I type in "New York" which is 45 minutes away by car, on the highway. Well it draws a map with a line between there and my house, and perfect driving directions down to the tenth of a mile and what direction to turn on each street.
This works too well.
once again... look at the post time/date.... it isn't redundant if it's one of the first... jeeze...