Expecting a Package?

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Expecting a Package?

7/19/2006 5:56 PM
  • Comments (21)

I feel like I’m always expecting packages.  In fact, I have been receiving a steady stream of packages for the last five months because my husband and I are remodeling our 1930 house we recently purchased.

At first it was fun, kind of like having a birthday everyday -- but then it got challenging to keep track of everything that we had ordered.  Using the package tracking features on the various shipping companies’ websites became a tedious daily ritual. 

But, how cool is this?  I got to be part of solving my own problem through my work.  I am a Program Manager on Instant Answers and my team and I just finished developing a new Instant Answer that has since alleviated the annoyances of tracking all my packages.  Now I can go to MSN Search  to track packages from any of four providers, FedEx, DHL, UPS, and USPS.  I no longer have to navigate to four distinct sites and follow four processes to see the status of my packages. I can enter just a tracking ID or an ID and some other package tracking keywords, and the Package Tracking Instant Answer properly constructs the tracking link for me.  All I have to do is click the link and view the status.  WooHoo!  More time for Xbox 360 in the evenings! 

Here are a few examples of searches you can do on MSN Search to track your packages; just plug in your own IDs for the x’s:

Where is FedEx package xxxxxxxxxxxx?

Tracking status xxxxxxxxxxxx

DHL shipment xxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Do you find this feature as useful as I do; try it out and let me know what you think.

--Jocelyn Dollar, Program Manager, Instant Answers

 

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Comments
  • MSN Playing Package Catch-Up » Another Blogger
    7/19/2006 7:12 PM
    PingBack from http://www.anotherblogger.com/2006/07/19/msn-playing-package-catch-up/
  • SEARCH ENGINES WEB ♥
    7/19/2006 11:50 PM
    This is a good idea in theory - but only techies would understand it


    to bring it to the masses - allow Search Engines WEB to suggest a separate Subdomain that is EXTREMELY easy to remeber - and have the options prefomationed or a very simple click and construct search field

    you could intially publicize this feature by putting a link on the msn homepage
  • Evan
    7/20/2006 8:32 AM
    I think this is pretty damn awesome!
  • xml
    7/20/2006 9:31 AM
    hi,
    i dunno if you can do anything about it but i just have to let somebody know the following:

    i cant for the love of god access the english version of msn, the stupid thing keeps redirecting me to http://search.msn.com.br/ even switching the language on msn settings doesnt work!

    i am really frustrated because i need to access http://search.msn.com/developer/ and the brazillian version of that doesnt exist (msn redirects me to http://search.msn.com.br/developer/).

    also i am not brazillian! portuguese from portugal is different enough for me to prefer the english version of the site.

    </rant>

    any help welcomed
  • Track FedEx, DHL, UPS, or USPS packages using MSN Search - Tech[dot]Blog - All about Computers, Smartphones and The Internet
    7/20/2006 11:29 AM
    PingBack from http://thinkabdul.com/2006/07/20/track-fedex-dhl-ups-or-usps-packages-using-msn-search/
  • OpsanBlog
    7/20/2006 9:17 PM
  • John
    7/21/2006 3:06 AM
    Great idea, I never knew this could be done
  • Amanda Hugenkiss
    7/21/2006 9:32 AM
    This is great, unfortunately i have been doing this with Google for about 3 years now.  In fact, whenever i get an email about a package being shipped in my Gmail account it provides a link on the right nav bar (instead of a irrelevant banner ad) with a link to the delivery company's tracking page. i dont even have to copy or type in the package ID its done for me.

    Next time i am on MSN Search i will check it out though.
  • argplywood
    7/22/2006 10:00 AM
    Thank you very much from Turkey
  • Hazman
    7/22/2006 1:25 PM
    I did not know that you can do that. Normally, I would go to indivual shipping companies to track my packages.

    This save a lot of time.
  • mp
    7/22/2006 6:18 PM
    This is cool.

    This is still not available on live.com. I have read an earlier post that says that you guys are working on adding these features to live.com. Adding new features to msn search that dont exist on the supposedly cutting edge live.com search doesnt help live.com's adoption.  

    Also, please do something about the *super slow* loading speed of live.com search. The javascript you have is just *too heavy*. Whenever I am in a hurry I hesitate using live.com search (although it is still the default in my IE7 browser) just because I am not sure how long it will take. This is a definite blocker to my adoption of live.com. Pretty soon, I will be forced to change my default to something else, maybe even Google!
  • Dirk Massat
    7/23/2006 6:50 AM
    great site with good look and information...i like it
  • laurent
    7/23/2006 1:53 PM
    The MSN lab page: http://sandbox.msn.com/ has not been updated for 4 years.

    Either you delete the page or you update it. For the moment it gives a bad image of MSN!
  • James
    7/24/2006 11:02 AM
    Hello,

    Can you create a feature on the search page to be able to preview/Quick Peek at the pages before opening to a new window????

    just like at favorites.live.com where you click to preview the links.

    That would be awsome, because I don't want to waste time going from site to site when I can preview the page from Live.Com

    I hope you tak this under consideration.

    Thank You.
  • ResourceShelf » Become.com Launches Search Zoom Filtering Feature; Package Tracking From Web Engines
    7/24/2006 9:21 PM
    PingBack from http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/07/25/becomecom-launches-search-zoom-filtering-feature-package-tracking-from-web-engines/
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