

ShowHN: an easy way to track your packages - csarva
http://mypackag.es/

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wccrawford
But I know when they arrived... I signed for them.

A more useful service would allow me to log in and see the current status and
location of each package I've notified it about. I've had as many as 10-15
packages in transit at once before and it became tedious to make sure I got
all of them. (In fact, one got lost, and I didn't notice for another month.)

~~~
bengl
Not necessarily. For example, if you're having a parcel delivered to your
home, but it arrives when you're at the office, you'd want to be notified when
this happens. Maybe your significant other or roommate signed for it. Maybe no
one signed for it and there will be another delivery attempt. This sort of
thing happens to me all the time for packages I don't want delivered to my
office.

On the other hand, notification of other tracking events would be useful too.
I'd make it optional to have those.

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ryanelkins
Yeah, I might like to be notified when it is actually shipped out, or maybe
even when it changes locations. Often time you might have a date range so it
could also be useful to know if it's at the local hub and should be delivered
today if I need someone at home to sign for it.

Anyways, it would sure beat digging up the email and visiting the tracking
page all the time to keep up with it. I also liked the suggestion about being
able to see the status of all my packages on one page across shippers.

I'm sure all this complicates things for you quite a bit, as right now you
don't need people to sign up or anything. You don't even need much of a
website beyond what you currently have. If this version goes well I'm sure you
have plans to incorporate some of this stuff, so in that regard, this seems
like a great MVP.

~~~
csarva
Sending alerts for other events is definitely something I've thought about as
well and plan to add in some way. I haven't quite figured out the best way to
enable optional features like this -- perhaps a separate email address or
something in the body?

As you hinted, I'd like to keep things as simple as possible and avoid signups
if I can (criminal, I know), at the very least for the basic feature of being
notified on delivery.

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ajays
(OT, but...) What I can't understand is: why can't FedEx/UPS tell me
approximately when they'll deliver my package? Or send me an SMS say, 15
minutes before the scheduled stop, so I know when to expect them? Surely the
drivers are not following a stochastic pattern and performing a random walk
through the streets?

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christo16
I suspect the delivery companies know this information internally, but don't
want you to freak out if your package says it will arrive at 10am but doesn't
come till 2pm because of traffic or the truck breaking down.

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bradleyland
Very cool. However, I don't see anything on the page that explains what I'm
getting myself in to from a privacy perspective. Based on most spam laws, once
I email you, we're engaged in business, so you could take liberties with that
and start sending me email. This looks like a neat service, so maybe I'm ok
with that, but I'd like to know up front.

~~~
csarva
Thanks for the comments. Privacy is very important to me as well and I plan to
get something up there soon, I just wanted to get it out the door in the
meantime.

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samatman
Thoughts:

Really like the 'mail to track' interface. Great way to get tracking numbers
into the sytem.

I use Delivery Status by Junecloud to track packages. I have to copypasta to
get them in; but then it sends me a Growl every time my package's status
changes, and I can hit the Dashboard to see where my stuff is and when the
estimated delivery date is.

I would need a similar level of functionality; getting an email when the
package is actually delivered won't cut it. Something that had a
Dashboard/Growl client and an iOS notification client, though: that I'd switch
to in a heartbeat.

~~~
csarva
Thanks for the input. There's definitely a lot more that can be done,
especially for those who need to track a large number of packages. More
features, possibly requiring a login, is something I've thought about, however
this super simple service meets my needs perfectly, and my guess is that I'm
not alone. Depending on how this goes, I'll be looking at building out more
functionality.

~~~
samatman
Cool. I basically asked you to build me a pony that I already have, so I fully
understand. Dig what you've done already.

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moge
really interesting. One comment on the UX. Since there are no clickable
buttons/links I thought this was just a coming soon page.

Create a button that says 'track now' or some other call to action.

Once I read the middle paragraph I understood how it works but I bet most
people will never piece that together.

and yes, package tracking would also be good. Have a look at Dominos pizza
order tracker. Something as easy as that would be fun and engaging.

~~~
stcredzero
_Create a button that says 'track now' or some other call to action._

How about 5 or so entry fields for tracking numbers and a button to "Create
Dashboard" to track all of the at once? You'd get back a page with a long
universally unique random URL that you can bookmark.

Once on the Dashboard, give the user the option to password-protect the page
by registering.

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AndrewHampton
FWIW, I use <http://twitter.com/TrackThis>. You just have to follow them (they
don't post anything, so no stream spam) and send them a dm w/ the tracking
number. They send you a dm whenever there is an update to your package
location while it's traveling.

~~~
ralx
Alternatively you can receive the info by SMS or email (or an iPhone Push)if
you register at <http://usetrackthis.com>

I love their service!

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charliepark
Seems like a really neat service. In the XforY tradition, a TripIt for your
Amazon orders.

One quick layout suggestion: Your #content div is currently set to 914px, and
on Firefox, that's dropping Step 3 to a lower line. If you increase that to
915px, it lifts up to be on the same line as the first 2 steps.

~~~
csarva
Thanks, fixed! I tested it in FF3.6/Mac and it looked ok. What version are you
on?

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x03
If you're getting into tracking multiple packages, Delivery Status does a very
good job of this: [http://junecloud.com/software/iphone/delivery-status-
touch.h...](http://junecloud.com/software/iphone/delivery-status-touch.html)
\-- although it's not a webapp.

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netmau5
Great idea. It'd be fun if I could either login or get a link mailed to me of
a Google Map overlaid with all of my current shipments, annotated with data
about them.

Definitely like the simple nature of your app though. Signing up is as easy as
adding you to the address book.

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MichaelSalib
Looks good. There are two things I'd suggest:

(1) gmail oauth integration: instead of having people forward tracking numbers
to you, you can read their mail for them.

(2) If you can collect just a bit more data (destination address), you should
be able to construct some useful statistical models predicting when packages
show up at my address as a function of delivery service, day of week, season.

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KishoreKumar
love it :) Great job! What & How would you earn bucks out of it?

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pitdesi
Cool. How will you monetize? There should be gmail apps that allow you to
plugin directly... the main problem is setting this thing up.

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csarva
Not too focused on monetizing at the moment. It's something I built cause I
needed it for myself.

re: gmail - you can very easily setup a filter to automatically forward
shipment confirmation emails from the places you most frequently shop (e.g,
Amazon).

