I am always interested to see what other people are writing about my blog. Some may say too interested. I have spent more than a few hours checking different websites and links just to realize that I’ve been there before.
So, when I saw the new Google Alerts service, I had a bit of an idea. Would it be possible to monitor the internet for anything that people wrote about me or my website?
Create Alerts
It turn out that it is insanely easy to to just that! Simply follow these steps:
- Go to Google Alerts
- In the search terms, enter the name of your website (e.g. “Daily Cup of Tech”)
- For type select Comprehensive. This will search news, blogs, websites, and newsgroups
- Select how often you want to receive alerts, either as-it-happens, once a day or once a week. I chose (surprise, surprise) as-it-happens.
- Enter your e-mail address and then click Create Alert
- Wait for the e-mail that you will be receiving from Google and verify the alert request.
Now, whenever Google finds something on the internet that contains the name of your website, you will promptly receive and e-mail.
Alert Tips
In order to properly monitor your website, you will probably want to create several tips with different search terms. Here are the ones that I have set up to monitor Daily Cup of Tech:
- “Daily Cup of Tech”
- DCoT
- dailycupoftech.com
- “Tim Fehlman”
- “Bean There, Done Tech”
If you are getting too much e-mail or you do not need to be notified the very second that something new is on the internet, change the frequency (how often) to once a day or once a week.
In your e-mail client, set up rules (Outlook) or filters (Thunderbird) to properly organize the Google Alerts.
You can delete any Google Alert by simply clicking on Remove this alert in the alert itself.
If you have a Google account, you can manage and edit your alerts. Otherwise, you need to delete and recreate an alert if you want it changed. It also streamlines the process because you do not need to confirm every alert that you create.
Conclusion
I really get a kick out of watching the alerts come in and seeing what others are saying about me on the internet. Hopefully, you will find this to be a useful tool as well.
If you found this post useful, why don't you buy me a cup of coffee to show your gratitude?
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November 15th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
I’ve been using this for a month or two as well. It’s mostly accurate, and has been pretty helpful. It’s really interesting to get a daily email about yourself, although sometimes it’s annoying because if someone auto-syndicates your feed, you get an alert about that twice every article. Oh well, it’s worth it.
November 15th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Great post. I posted a link to it so my visitors can use this as well.
craigdorn.com
November 15th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
craigdorn,
Glad you liked it. The one thing that I find really useful about it is that with a Google account, I can set the messages to text only and then send them to my cell phone.
Thanks for the link.
Tim
January 30th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Great post - must read for anyone interested in google alerts.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 am
I receive google alert mails on daily basis, but I am not able to open them and read the full summmary.Kindly send your guidlelines for the same.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:20 am
Google alerts are good but iam not able to open the topc for full reading.This is my comment.