Why Google Alerts are So Useful!
Why are “Google Alerts” so Valuable?
Many of you may already be aware that Google offers a service called “Google Alerts”. For those who were not, Google Alerts is a service that you can setup through Google to receive updates via email whenever a search criteria, that you specify is met.
This may sound pretty basic but it can be a very powerful tool for many reasons. The internet has gotten to a point where it is considered tacky to waste ones time browsing sites on a high speed connection. In the world we live in, where people feel they need instant access to specific information at all times, the RSS feed is king.
On this same note, services like Google Alerts can meet a very specific need. If you do not have the time to find the information you need on the internet, tell Google to find it for you and to email you when it’s finished.
In a way the alerts are somewhat like an RSS feed in that they provide constant updates throughout the day (depending on how you have them configured.) so you can spend your time doing other things until the information you need arrives.
The best way to understand why they are so convenient is to go to the Google Alerts homepage and set one up to see just what they are all about. You can reach the homepage from the following link:
On the Google alerts page you will notice two things, a welcome message that gives you a brief description of what Google Alerts are, and a form with drop down menus labeled “Create a Google Alert”.
We want to start by creating an alert. Now you will notice the four information fields that are required to create the alert. They are “Search Terms”, “Type”, “How Often”, and “Your Email”.
Let’s start by putting in our search terms. For our example let’s use:
“Pseudorant”
This way we can receive an alert whenever the site gets mentioned online. Notice I have left out the “www” and “com” part of the address. I have done this because I would like to be informed of any general mention of Pseudorant. If you were interested in knowing when the site address gets mentioned you would put in www.pseudorant.com.
Keep in mind that you are not limited to just words or titles. You can setup alerts for advanced search queries to find very specific information. Google Alerts will let you setup search terms using all the common Google operators.
For more information on Google Operators and how to use them, refer to my Google Guide which is located at the following links:
Google Guide 01 - Introduction & Search Operators
Google Guide 02 - Definitions, Maps, Driving Directions
Google Guide 03 - Services, Features, Advanced Operators
Google Guide 04 - Web History, Bookmarks, Labs & Easter Eggs
Once you have setup the search term to your liking, you need to complete the rest of the form to make sure you receive your alerts.
The next option we need to set is the “Type” of alert. There are six options here to choose from, News, Blogs, Web, Comprehensive, Video and Groups. These options will determine where Google should look for the information you are searching for.
When I setup Google Alerts I tend to use the “Comprehensive” option because I like to know if the information is coming up in multiple areas. Though sometimes selecting one area may provide better results if you are looking for something like a news story.
In this case because you are looking for confirmed news, you will probably want rule out other sources like “Videos” “Groups” and “Blogs” which may contain information that is based on opinion and not necessarily on fact. Although sometimes bloggers do tend to have the inside scoop like my article on “Google Office in Madison Confirmed by The Capital Times Newspaper“.
After you have determined what type of alert is going to get you the most relevant information you need to set the frequency of the alert. This can be done by using the drop down menu on the “How Often” field. Here you have three options, “Once a day“, “As-it-happens“, and “Once a week“.
How often you receive the alert can be an important decision based on how interested you are in the material you are asking Google to send you. In the case of a blogger you may setup multiple news alerts that you want to receive immediately so you can be one of the first to post links to any breaking news. Although if you are just setting up alerts to keep an eye out for a new game you are waiting to play, you may only want to receive updates once a day. If you set them too often it may feel as though you are being spammed because depending on the topic you can receive several updates per hour.
On the other hand if you do not set them to come often enough you may miss out on an interesting story or topic that you would like to have been in on from the start. These are just a couple things to keep in mind when you decide how often you would like to receive updates.
The last thing you need to do to complete the Google Alert submissions is to enter the email address you would like the alerts to go to. As I mentioned before updates that come to often can feel like spam, so you may want to consider setting up a secondary email address that your Google alerts go to.
I actually have this setup on my iPhone so that my normal mail goes to one email address and my Google alerts go to another. This way when an alert comes in and my phone dings, I can decide if I want to look at it now, or save a couple for later and go through them all at once.
You can set this up however it best meets your needs but it can be a nice alternative to sorting through your email every couple hours if you’re getting alerts “As-it-happens”.
Once you have submitted the email address to send the alerts to, you can click the “Create Alert” button which will finalize the Google Alert submission process.
It will now take you to a webpage that says there has been a confirmation email sent to the address you specified. You will want to log into that email account and click on the link in the email to confirm that you would actually like to receive the alerts.
Once you have done this you will start to receive alerts based on the criteria you specified. You can now sit back and relax as the latest updates on Warhammer online come right to your email, or the latest scoop on any news in your city.
As with most Google services this provides yet another very useful feature to help people get the most out of their online experience. If you are a blogger I highly recommend setting up Google Alerts for your interests because it will help you come up with interesting topics for posts on a daily basis.
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