Quick fix for lazy correspondents (postcards.org)

Member Name: campb3ll

Product:	postcards.org
Date:	15/08/01 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, Huge choice of e-cards, Penguin Awareness Day

Disadvantages: Operates on Pacific Time not GMT, Naff music

Last Saturday, I suddenly realised a friend's birthday was the very next day and I hadn't bought a card. Not a problem as I'd done a quick search on Dooyoo for free e-card services. As the friend in question was in Spain, this was the only viable last minute option.

Heading over to Postcards.org, there are six broad categories of e-cards on the home page:

1. Popular Picks
2. Everyday Cards
3. Occasions & Messages
4. Entertainment
5. People & Living
6. Things & Places

As I was "shopping" for a birthday e-card, I headed straight for the birthday section in the third category. There were several pages of potential birthday e-cards; most of them were animated gifs although some were photos or plain jane gifs. The odd one or two were flash animations instead of gifs.

I selected a suitable card - something simple and classy to counteract the cheapness of my birthday offering. A few moments is all it took to add a title, zippy message, chose a background theme and select some tinny electronic music. The music was, quite possibly, the main let down for the card. Some of the tunes seemed to be playing a medley of background melodies while thumping out their own unique versions of "give me some aspirin, I have a headache". However, I settled for Happy Birthday To You II, which was reasonably tuneful.

Once I'd navigated the above options, I had the additional choices of receiving a copy of my e-card, receiving a thank-you and being notified of receipt of said card. The thank-you option just generates a sad little "thank you for using our services" email. The copy option sends you a URL for viewing the card plus the URL for deleting unsent cards. The receipt option lets you know to the exact second when your lucky receipient picked up their e-card.

Whew - that was exhausting. :) Previewing the card for flaws nearly killed me but I concluded that no one else
except me and my anonymous friend would ever see it, so that was okay. The very last option was when to send out the e-card. I selected "tomorrow" but you can pick any day from today to 30 days into the future. If you do pick a future-dated card, you can chose to delete it before it is delivered providing you do so by 2330h PDT (Pacific Time) on the day prior to delivery (they are delivered at 1200h PDT on the day specified). It is also worth noting that the e-cards use a mix of Java and HTML, so if your browser doesn't display Java applets, then you can scroll down for the HTML version.

... And that's what it takes to send out an e-card from Postcards.org ...

Before you disappear though, it's worth noting a few other features of this site. From the home page, you can search through the cards - if the category breakdown isn't enough for you. You can also pick up e-cards from here - or shoot off to a seperate pick up page. There is a help page with a searchable database - because sending e-cards is really taxing and you need all the help you can get. :) There is a what's new page, which lists all the recently added cards.

The crowning feature of this site, though, has to be the calender on the left hand side of the home page. This lists events today, tomorrow, yesterday and this month. For example, did you know that August 17 is Independence Day in Indonesia? I didn't. Or that August 19 is Penguin Awareness Day? Actually, that last one is slightly worrying but I'm sure you get the gist of these extensive calender dates. Check back often so that you don't miss Doughnut Appreciation Week or How to Eat with One Hand tied Behind Your Back Day, etc, etc.

This site is so clearly rich in its possibilities and usefulness as a public events notification service that I'll definately be clicking back very soon.

And the friend? Well, he picked up his birthday e-card yesterday and was might
ly impressed ... that I'd remembered his birthday. But I think he liked the card too. If you're running late with birthday cards, correspondence, etc, then give this site a go. It's my favourite price: free!

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