Google Alerts Rules
August 17th, 2007 by 
Chris
Many of you probably already use Google Alerts. If you do not use it yet, you should try it. I use it daily for myself and clients for the following three business purposes:
- Competitive Research
- Find New Content
- Find News and Blogs With My/My Clients’ Names
Aside from saving a ton of time on these pursuits, I know I am being introduced to new sites, competitors, and information I would not have found otherwise. It is a great way to automate some tasks. I think Timothy Ferriss would be proud.
From the Google Alerts page.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
Here’s a Google Alerts tutorial from Digital Inspiration that is pretty handy and includes some specific examples of how to use Google Alerts.
The Price Blog creatively suggests using Google Alerts to find prizes you have won.
Tracy, at The Student Tablet PC, has the enterprising suggestion for students to use Google Alerts to find information about potential employers so that can be up-to-date in interviews.
If you have any questions about it, here’s the Google Alerts FAQ and the Google Blog. Try it for a while. Sign up for your own website or blog’s name, for a few keywords you want to get news about, and for “Lead Optimize”. 
If you don’t like it, unsubscribe.
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Posted in Interesting, Marketing | 
August 20th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Alerts are pretty cool aren’t they. I have to admit I don’t use them as effectively or as often as I should. One of the things I’ve used them for is simply to research a blog post. I’m happy to let Google deliver me research instead of having to go out and look for it.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I have not used alerts until now. Instead I subscribe to rss feeds for search results on topics/news I am interested in. Do you think alerts add more value compared to search results rss feeds?
August 21st, 2007 at 6:43 am
Khalid, I am not sure. I never became really proficient at using RSS searches. Google Alerts makes it really easy - automatic - to search for the keywords I want, though. Have any tips for RSS searches?