Google Alerts: Great research tool now with RSS
Posted by Mark White, Blog Consultant in Blogging News , RSS Information
I’ve long been a fan of using Google Alerts – as far as I’m concerned, alongside subscribing to relevant RSS feeds, it’s certainly the best way to make sure that I keep up to date with any new information appearing on the web on topics that I’m interested in. It’s also a great way to ensure that I can follow conversations and articles which are relevant to my clients, their own reputation management as well as the markets they work in.
Now for me, Google have recently made it even more useful through the simple act of allowing me to receive this information via RSS rather than by email. This means that I can now have all of this information coming into one place (my Google Reader) as well as any keyword searches I have running through other sites and of course all the feeds from the key blogs I follow.
All you need to do is select RSS instead of email as shown above and the system does the rest. Of course, there’s no longer a need to specify the frequency (ie. immediate, daily or weekly) because RSS will always update as soon as you have new information to read. (BTW, if you want a recap on the benefits RSS can bring in general then have another read of this.)
Anyway, if you aren’t already doing so, then set up some keyword searches on Google Alerts, get them automatically sent to your RSS Reader and keep a step ahead of your competition by getting all the latest information before they do.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Thanks for the tip Mark, I have changed my settings already!
November 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Just changed my settings. Thank you for the tip. The less email to come in the better.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Great advice, as ever, Mark – duly stumbled. It is amazing what we don’t realise ourselves.
Thank you
November 10th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Thanks for your comments! I certainly think that it’s positive having it all in one place and, as you may have gathered, I really like the benefits and utility that RSS brings both as a publisher of information and as a user.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Great, thanks for the updates – heh. I am subscribed to too many alerts and I’m starting to get irritated with my own alerts in the email.
With RSS it’d be so much better.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Just come across this blog Mark, – it seems I’ve been missing out somewhat…some great advice and information about Google Alerts here. Will be sure to come back and have a read over some of your other posts.
Cheers
September 30th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Google Alerts have been really flaky lately.
Google seems to be having issues with converting a Google Alert to RSS feed. I’ve tried multiple times and it’s no longer feeding properly in Google Reader.