The art of writing a letter is dead, right? I mean, who sends letters these deals when you can whip off an e-mail and have it delivered in seconds to someone half-way across the world? Well, Easypost.ca wants to turn the tide with a useful, if not perplexing, service that lets you send letters to people. Here’s how it works: you head on over to Easypost.ca and fill out two boxes: one with the address of the person getting the letter, and the other for whatever you want to write. You then hit submit, and the letter is delivered. It’s free, easy, there’s no registration required, and absolutely no sign of a business plan. So, it really is a bonafide Web 2.0 service. If you check out the FAQ, it suggests the free letter-writing service is free while it beta (typical Web 2.0) but that down the road a small fee will be charged for some services. In terms of who operates Easypost.ca, the FAQ says: “Some cool people from Canada and a small team of hamsters.” (Hat tip to StartUpNorth for discovering Easypost)
Finally, an easy way to send anonymous hate mail!
I think it is a wonderful idea.
The main question of course is who pays for stamps and time it takes to print the letter and package it.
The cost would be at least 3x the stamp cost and so my guess is that by offering it free during beta, they create viral marketing and word of mouth that ends up on the long run being far less than what it would have cost them via advertising.
Yet it is a great service and I for one would end up using it. But I have no doubt that it will be paid (Say $1-$2 per letter in canada). In addition, there are obvious privacy concerns that need to be overcome for widespread adaptation to actually materialize.
Lots of us are interested in using the mail in the modern age, especially this person in Scotland:
http://www.mailart.org/archives/1989