Google Alerts is a notification service created by Google that sends emails with the content user puts an alert on whenever desired. It can be articles, web pages, blogs, or any other content that matches your search words. The Google Alerts service helps you receive updates on topics you are interested in and summarize the search activity around search terms you choose.
How to set up Google Alerts?
When you're working on a story, Google Alerts is a simple, powerful way to keep you in the know. However, to use the service in a beneficial way, you need to be well-versed in how it works and how to get the most useful updates on any topic.
Let's say you're covering the midterm elections, and you want to stay up on all the coverage as it's happening. How to achieve it?
- To create an alert, just enter the search words you want to get email notifications for. (In our case, it’s “midterm elections”) You'll get a quick preview of them down below.
- Then click “Show options” to customize things like how often you get alerts, the types of websites and content you want searched, and the email address where you'll receive them.
- Then click “Create alert.” In the settings menu, you can customize when and how you get them. First, select what time you want to get your alerts. If you have more than one, you can select “Digest” to receive them all in one email.
- Now all you have to do is keep an eye on your inbox for your google alerts.
Besides researching a story, you can also use Google Alerts to monitor your own works impact. Just enter your byline name or website and get email notifications whenever someone shares or posts your work. Google Alerts is a great way to keep tabs on just about anything.
