ONE of the tools Google provide which I believe is of incredible value, is Google Alerts.
If you are a company, a researcher, someone who likes to stay up to date on specific issues or maybe just someone who would like to know if anybody is writing something online about you or your company, then this tool is for you.
Let us take the following scenario: You are a scrapbooking enthusiast. You love to create scrapbooks and you also love reading about scrapbooking. You have spent many hours visiting websites about scrapbooking. This you have been doing for months. You have visited hundreds of sites. But what if these sites are updated or new sites are added? How will you know? Will you have to visit all these sites again?
No, simply go to http://www.google.com/alerts. Enter the information required, like the topic you want information on and how often the information should be delivered to you. Enter your delivery address and create the alert. You will then receive an email to confirm you did request the service, whereafter you will receive regular updates of new websites or posts on the topic you have entered.
I highly recommend it for companies to monitor whether people are talking about your company or products. Keep a tab on what is said about your brand.
Obviously this is a perfect tool for researchers and teachers to keep up to date in their field.
Remember, this service is free and you are able to set many alerts. However, also remember, when you set many alerts, you will get many update emails about the topics of your enquiry.