Need way too much information, fast? Try Google Alerts
I just wanted to take a second to mention a fantastic Google tool that most people don’t seem to know about. Google Alerts allow you to be notified by email every time there are new search results for keywords you have specified. There are some settings to help filter your results and you can also decide how often and in what format (individual emails or digest) your notifications are delivered. You have to be somewhat specific with your keywords or your mailbox will be overflowing within minutes. I set up an Alert based on the term “iPhone” with no filtering and a day later my mailbox was so full that Outlook locked up and I had a max capacity warning from my hosting provider…oops. However, if you set up an Alert for “Crestron” or “touchpanel design” and you limit your results to blogs and news items, you will undoubtedly start getting useful information as soon as it becomes available. Just try to resist the temptation to set up an Alert for all new “American Idol” news and your mailbox should be okay. Additionally, if you are an avid Twitterer, Google Alerts are a great way to find useful, up-to-date topics to Tweet about. You will need a Google account to use Alerts, but quite frankly, if you don’t have one yet, you’re missing out on all kinds of excellent, free tools and services.
Recent Comments