Some of us cling to traditional paper mail while others are ready to wipe our hands of it. Whatever your feelings are, there is a Web-based service that can use the power of the Internet to simplify this almost-archaic practice. And considering most of our professional, personal, and billing communication is done via email, the physical mailbox is increasingly become the home to nothing but ads, ads, and more ads.
A new startup called Updater has launched the beta version of its service and wants to help minimize any mail pain – offline. The Web-based application gives users some added control over their snail mail needs. Updater allows you to determine who can and can’t see your physical postal addresses and also can limit the seemingly endless amount of the physical spam you get in your mailbox.
Basically Updater is putting a digital spin on one of the most tedious and un-electronic chores the Internet hasn’t solved for us yet. It contacts the US Postal Service to notify them of your new address, as well as any other contacts and organizations (schools, alumni associations, charities, etc) you want to remain on the mailing list of.
It’s most useful feature might be ridding us of ad mail altogether, Updater can put a stop to it. The service will stop paper ads from flooding your mailbox by sending opt-out requests to the largest marketing lists that spam the hell out of you on a daily basis.
An address change is $1.99, and address privacy is $14.99 for three years. Updater says it only shares your information for the services you request unless “required to do so by law.”
