As journalists, we're continually trying to stay on top of subjects relevant to our beats. Google is a great tool to find what you need, but I often find myself doing the same searches over and over again. At least, I used to. Now I use Google Alert, a neat site that automatically tracks Web sites of interest to you and sends you the links.
http://www.googlealert.com
Google Alert lets you track anything on the Web that shows up in Google's search. Simply enter keywords or phrases you want to track on the site (after going through the simple, free Google Alert registration process).
|
E-MAIL NEWSLETTER |
Sign up to receive Web Tips by e-mail:
* Click here (sent Tuesdays & Fridays at noon)
| |
The site then runs daily Google searches for you and e-mails you the results. The first e-mail includes up to 50 results from Google, many of which you've probably seen before. But after that, the e-mails only include new results that have not appeared before. That's the truly useful part.
Google Alert isn't affiliated with Google (though it does use Google's Web Services API to perform the searches). The service was created by Gideon Greenspan, a PhD student at Israel's Technion and long-time Macintosh developer.
You can set how often Google Alerts runs searches, how often it e-mails you and how many results it returns each time.
If you don't want to get more e-mail, you can also view your results online by clicking "Browse Results".
Google Alerts lets you set up to five search terms. If you want to do more than that, you can always create a separate, free account.
SUBMIT YOUR TIPS FOR PUBLICATION: What websites do you find most useful in your reporting? Send a brief note with your name, affiliation, and a description of a favorite site to tips@cyberjournalist.net and I may publish them in future columns.
Coming Tuesday: Sree Sreenivasan
Coming next Friday: Jonathan Dube
