UPS tracking with GMail

Shelley Powers writes:

"We seem to feel 'flattered' when software remembers about us."

Yep. The other day my GMail flashed something at me from the toolbar: a UPS delivery number.

I was busy with something else, and my initial reaction was slight annoyance: "What's it bothering me about?"

When I clicked on the hyperlinked number, a new window opened at the United Parcel Service website, informing me that a package I'd been waiting for had been delivered. "What? No it hasn't… has it…?"

Opened the front door, and there it was sitting on the welcome mat. Oh joy.

Not only was I pleased that the package had arrived, I loved this new, undiscovered feature from GMail.

I assume that GMail spotted the order confirmation when it arrived in my in box, and tracked the UPS number for me via the UPS website. I hadn't asked GMail to do this, nor ticked any option (that I can recall) in my GMail settings. It just did this automatically.

As a user, I can sometimes lean towards the ooo-shiny side with regards to Google. For a more critical view from a techie, see Burningbird.