I sold an item on EBay and shipped it to the buyer this morning via USPS. The Postal Service lets you track the package (via Priority Mail) using their website or by getting email alerts. I balked at giving out my email address yet again… why couldn’t I just get an RSS feed?

A quick Googling of “USPS RSS” landed me at SimpleTracking.com. I was delighted to discover that it really was simple, and it really is tracking. I pasted in the tracking code, pressed the “Generate RSS URL” button, and subscribed accordingly. No fuss, no muss, no handing out email addresses again. You can track packages sent through UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL.

SimpleTracking is built using RSS .NET, and transforms the XML provided by the USPS into an RSS format. They have a .dll for sale that gives you access to the API bridges they have built. Or, if you’re more inclined to building something yourself, here is an article describing some ways to interface with the USPS XML API.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 09:45 and is filed under syndication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.