New feature in Search: Google tracks shippings
Put us to the test!
A tracking service in real time, to find out at any given moment how far we are in the status of the online-made order and where our “package” actually is. Nothing special, really, except for the fact that this feature will soon be integrated within Google Research, piling up on all of the other features turning the search engine into a responsive engine and a true and proper “absolute” home page.
Shipping info directly on Google
Breaking the news of the launch of the “Package tracking Early access program”, available on a global scale in every Country, is the webmaster official blog of the californian company, that also explains how to access the project: interested delivery companies can subcribe to join in and provide data with RESTful JSON or XML API so to allow Google to show the tracking info of the shipping.
The blog also explains that Google can work together with the different teams of the shipping companies “to use an already existing API or to set a whole new one”, and that this first step will mainly be needed to test the feature and get feedbacks on how to enhance it.
Google is competing on an entire new field
The first understandable reaction we can have from the outside is “here we go again!”: Google has found out a new sector to stretch its tentacles on and keep pursuing its evolution toward the role of competitor of all sites, as Rand Fishkin was saying precisely about the US company’s strategies.
Voluntary involvement for delivery companies
After the long list of maps, travels, restaurant booking or ticket purchasing with Duplex and many other type of researches autocompleting themself in SERP, then, now it is the tracking‘s turn. Other relevant aspects emerged also concerne the delivery companies’ involvement: for now, joining the functionality is a voluntary matter and there is hence a lot of interest to see how many companies will actually decide to do it.
What is the best choice for delivery companies’ sites?
The issue is always the same, the prisoner dilemma in SEO clothes: joining it couls mean to lose organic traffic toward the official delivery company site, but to be included in the new feature could also still bring some benefits to the brand and – most of all – allow the user to get more immediate answers therefore creating a bond. We just need to wait and see what the actual choice will be, but if a guess can be ventured, we think that not many will turn down the opportunities of visibility offered by Google.
