Saturday, January 07, 2006

Zip-pity doo dah

I sell a fair bit of stuff on eBay now, so I get a lot of requests for shipping estimates. Of course, the Canada Post web site doesn't allow you to calculate cost (of parcels) by zip code, only by state. So when I keep getting questions 'how much to this zip code?', I went looking for a way to map them. Ben Fry at MIT created this ultra-cool web app to show you where zip codes are on a map of the US. It has some minor flaws in execution, but the design is splendirific.

Meanwhile, did you know Mapquest has a zipcode / postal code mapper? I kid you not.....

1 comment:

Canuck Girl said...

I ship a fair amount of stuf to the States and have discovered that UPS is actually a better service. For a small amount more ($21.50 compared to 20.75 with Canada Post) I can ship a large package that is guaranteed to get to Florida in a week and I can track it no problem. The last time I used Canada Post, it took 3.5 weeks.