Postal Service Offering High-Tech Way To Preview Your Mail

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NEW YORK (CBS NEWS) - First came snail mail. Then email. Now the post office is about to deliver something new: pre-mail.

For some, the first thing that comes to mind when your hear the words "post office" is: antiquated.

"Oh my God I have to go to the post office," one woman said. "Normally when you come to the post office it takes a long time, things are not labeled. You can't find where you have to go and people aren't very friendly."

But for all of its shortcomings, the United States Postal Service does provide a lot of comedic material, which just may have inspired its latest feature.

In one stand-up routine, Jerry Seinfeld said: "If I could talk to the post office, if I could say to them, if you really want to be helpful to us, just open the letters, read them and email us what it says!"

It won't be doing that, but starting Friday, the post office is taking the snail out of mail and starting a new service called Informed Delivery in Texas and most other parts of the country.

If you sign up, you can see who sent you mail the way you view practically everything else -- online.

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