Autumn 2007

As travellers on the UK's public transport system will have discovered already from a high-profile poster advertising campaign mounted by express parcel carrier UPS, the company has launched what it calls a 'desktop companion' software application called UPS Widget. It is branded with a three-dimensional animated character called Widget.

The system is very UPS-centric, but does also have generic features including the ability to track updates to a list of the user's favourite web sites, which can be signalled by various means such as RSS feeds, a scrolling onscreen ticker and an alert window.

This reflects the generic meaning of the term 'widget', which has been coming into use in software circles recently to denote mini-applications that help integrate separate systems and create 'mash-ups' (web sites that present information from more than one source).

UPS-specific functions include fast access to consignment tracking (up to 100 tracking numbers can be saved at a time), and 'quicklinks' to useful sites within UPS.com, such as 'Calculate Time and Cost' and 'Create a Shipment'.

The software download is free. You can get to it from the UPS main site, but if you want the exact URL and haven't already memorised it from the posters, we've got it at www.FollowUpOnline.co.uk.