Google Alerts is a tool I often mention to clients. It super useful to bloggers and entrepreneurs and great for keeping your finger on the pulse of any topic, person, team, or treads.
One of my friends and colleagues is writing a blog on what I’d call a developing story–bed bugs. Bed bugs have been a growing problems in hotels, dorms, shelters, and homes for a few years now. They are miserable to the person who has them and difficult to get rid of. BoAe Kim at www.sfbedbugs.com is using Google Alerts as one means of following the story and participating in the dialogue about who will be responsible for the cost of eliminating bed bugs in public places.
Here are the purposes that Google mentions for using Google Alerts.
* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
The Google Alert service is free. Once you sign up, you receive an email, RSS feed or iGoggle notice when articles with your search terms appear in news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups on Google.
If you have a story about using Google Alerts OR another keen Google tool you’d like to share, please chime in.
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Karen Nierlich writes the Full Orbit Web and Marketing Blog and is a Principal in the internet marketing firm of the same name. Her passion is helping small and medium size business make great marketing decisions and learn how to use these Web 2.0 tools such as blogging to grow their business. She and her family live in Albany, CA, next to Berkeley, CA.