Would you like to get targeted news/web searches delivered to your email? Google Alerts can do that for you. Google Alerts allow you to get automated, customized news and web searches delivered to your email daily, weekly, or as breaking news alerts based on the criteria you provide. The service can be used without a Google account, but if you start using the service more, and you will, having an account will allow you to manage and tweak your alerts easier. If you already use Google for a customized home page, email, Picasa account, Blogger account, or any of the other Google services, you can use that same account information to use and manage Google Alerts.
In order to really grasp how beneficial Google Alerts can be, you need to try it out for yourself. There are no limits to how many alerts you can create. Here’s how:
- Click here to visit the Google Alerts page
- Type a search term or terms in the first box. Remember to spell your terms correctly and describe your search completely so your alerts are more accurate
- In the Type box, click and choose whether you want to get alert items from news stories only, blogs, videos, web in general (non-news), discussion groups, or comprehensive (which covers it all).
- Choose how often you want the emails in the third box. Your choices are daily, weekly, or as the news happens.
- Lastly, fill in your email and click the Create Alert button
Within a few hours, you will start to receive your email alerts. The email will be from Google Alerts with the subject Google Alert – Your Search Terms. The email will contain a list of the matches it found with the link to the story and where it is from and the first two lines of the story itself. You can delete or edit an alert at any time by going back to the Google Alerts web page and clicking the Manage your alerts link.
