Blue pizzas?

Some innovations that look at lot of like tech for the sake of technology begin to take on a strong tinge of blue when we dig a little deeper. One of these appears at first glance to be a contender of innovation for innovation's sake: the almighty Domino's Pizza Tracker. On its face, this feature sounds -- most generously -- dumb. But after thinking more about it, and seeing Pizza Tracker in action, it begins like a rejuvenation of Domino's former Create key element: 30-minute delivery.

Here's how the system works: you order a pizza online; a Flash application pops up and you can watch as your pizza is assembled, cooked, boxed, then delivered. Dell pioneered the concept with computers, except you eat the finished product and the whole process takes just minutes from beginning to end. After, you're prompted to rate your pizza maker and delivery person, who are referred to by name.

I suspect Domino's is trying to show us how fast they cooked a pizza. What they've done instead -- as demonstrated by my son's fascination with Pizza Tracker -- is made it more fun to order a pizza and involved the consumer in the manufacturing process. They've done that, whether on purpose or by accident, by looking across industries at tracking applications, and also switching the functional/emotional experience of pizza ordering.

We'll see if Pizza Tracker replaces Domino's famous 30-minutes or free key element to recapture the blue ocean the company unleashed so long ago. They can't guarantee delivery in 30-minutes, but they can deliver the same emotional experience by showing you where your pizza is and about when it will arrive, which is close enough.

Even if Pizza Tracker isn't able to replace the key element in its entirety, the realization that key element of the business could be swapped on the functional/emotion axis to satisfy customer demand is brilliant. I have no idea how much technology is behind Pizza Tracker, and don't watch enough mass-media to see if there's any traditional red-ocean marketing. But given the chance to decide where the family pizza will come from, my family's willing to trade-off those key element's that were likely eliminated or reduced (fresh ingredients, local-based business, a large menu) to track our pizza being produced in real-time.

The only question now: when will they add GPS integration so you can see it your 'za being driven from the oven to your door, or maybe a high-heat webcam in the oven to see it cooking?