• USA Today, Monday, July 27, 2009 10:57 AM

We are becoming a nation of track-a-holics, Bruce Horovitz writes, and marketers are "keenly hip to this growing consumer demand." The phenomenon started with tracking FedEx and UPS packages online in the mid-Nineties, but it has exploded to include everything from consumers following the progress of their pizza as it wends its way through the Domino's assembly process to a Web site that helps parents monitor their infant's sleeping, eating and, well, patterns that require a Pampers or similar product.

The Pizza Tracker is more than a marketing tool for Dominos, giving it a window into the online world of its customers. "Americans love knowing where their things are," says Chris McGlothlin, Domino's CIO. Used by 75% of Domino's online customers, it also gives the first names of workers who make and deliver their order, says CMO Russell Weiner. As a society, he points out, "we're not just time-starved, we're starved for connections to others."

Tracking may be about consumers wanting some sense of control over their lives. "I'd much rather know if I'm secure in my job," says Barry Glassner, sociology professor at the University of Southern California. "But if I can't know that, at least I can know the status of my pizza."

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