Anyone Out There "Alert" For Google?

[Griff Grumbein]

OK, Kids!

Question for ALL of you: Who is using Google's: "Google Alerts" (besides me)

I haven't heard or read any discussions on this , and that surprises me because I'm having a FIELD DAY with it! Am I missing something here? Is this old news to everyone but me, or does nobody else see the potential of this tool?

I'm just trying to figure out if I'm 1 french fry away from a Happy Meal or what? Why aren't people talking about this?

I would love to hear any and all feedback on this!

Thanks!

Griff

p.s. If you are not familiar with it, you can read about it here (NON-Affiliate link): http://www.google.com/support/alerts/bin/static.py?page=faq.html&hl=en
~(G)Q

[Jim Hutchinson]

Hi Griff

You are not crazy - those who do not use Google Alerts to monitor their industry are crazy.

Anyone who wants to know what the latest news items are (press releases) or who is talking about them (blogs) should be monitoring the Google Alerts. Believe me, it can really open your eyes on what is happening outside your laser beam focus on business promotion.

What I mean there is that if someone is focusing on getting their name out there without seeing what others are saying about it, then an entire angle is being overlooked.

A good example is the foreclosure industry. It is one that I monitor daily, mainly because it is a large part of business for me. So I monitor various keywords in Google Alerts related to foreclosures. I read the news items of interest and see if any blog articles were written about it yet.

If not, then there is a topic for an article that allows me to express my views on it. If there are some blog articles written on it, I read through them and look for angles I can use, such as whether I agree or disagree with them.

Once the articles are written and posted to one of my own blogs, Google Alerts picks that up for others to see. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Google Alerts surprised me too. They not only show news alerts and blog articles, but the more I post on sites like Yahoo! Answers, Google Alerts indexes my profile. It is a sweet bonus for participating and keeping my profile up to date.

So, how do others use Google Alerts, or how have you benefited from them?

[BradleyD.Haslam]

Hey Guys,

Just a quick " me too" post.

I use it. (But not regularly enough.)
And I know Ros uses it too.
ANYone reading this thread
that hasn't checked it out,
and is trying to market ANYthing online,
NEEDS to check this out pronto.

Staying up on your industry is where ideas come from.
And this takes one more HUGE time waster away from your day,
and automates it beautifully.

Thanks for bringing it up guys!!
You Rock!!
Brad.