I don’t know about you, but these days I find myself buying more and more stuff online rather than going to the store. Most things are cheaper on the Internet if you spend the time looking for a bargain, and nowadays many places will ship things for free. The problem is trying to keep up with all of the packages you’re supposed to be receiving.
That’s why we had previously covered some of the best sites for tracking packages. As you can imagine having to go to a website is not necessarily the best way to do this, and that’s why we also wanted to highlight five widgets/gadgets that will bring the information to you. Each of the widgets listed below run on a different widget platform, and so there’s really something for everyone.
1. Delivery Status for Mac Dashboard [Homepage] 
Supported carriers: Canada Post, DHL/AirBorne, FedEx, Japan Post, Royal Mail, Posten, Purolator, UPS, USPS, and more
This is one of the most advanced tracking widgets I’ve ever seen. Not only does it let you enter in your tracking number, but it also accepts order information for stores such as Apple, Amazon, and more. Plus if you use Growl you can enable desktop notifications.
2. PackageTrackr for Vista Sidebar [Homepage] 
Supported carriers: FedEx, DHL/AirBorne, UPS, and USPS
You can manage several different packages with this sidebar gadget. When you click on one of the packages a small window will flyout showing you the details, and also includes a map view so that you can see the path your package has taken.
3. Package Tracker for Google Desktop [Homepage] 
Supported carriers: FedEx, DHL/AirBorne, UPS, and USPS
This Google gadget of course integrates with Google Maps to show your package’s route, and gives you details on where the package is currently located.
4. Package Tracker for Opera [Homepage]
Supported carriers: FedEx, DHL/AirBorne, UPS, and USPS
This is pretty much a play-by-play gadget that regurgitates the information provided by the shipping sites, but does so in a convenient and compact format.
5. Universal Shipment Tracker for Yahoo! Widgets [Homepage]
Supported carriers: FedEx, DHL/AirBorne, Purolator, UPS, and USPS
Definitely not the prettiest shipment tracking widget, but it gets the job done if your a Yahoo! Widget user. One of the nice things is that you can adjust the frequency of updates in the options.
I use TrackThePack.com which actively supports UPS, FedEx, DHL, or USPS and is working to add others.
I just have it as a Firefox Toolbar Link, but it indicates it does RSS and iCal feeds. Also there is a firefox extension.
Mac stuff always looks 100 times better than anything else….bastards :P
That’s one of my favorite services as well, and we actually covered that previously. Some people just prefer widgets that automatically refresh.
There are quite a few things on the Mac that look better than Windows, but the trade off is that there isn’t nearly as much freeware.