According to Wikipedia, "'Danger, Will Robinson!' is an English catch phrase from the classic 1960s American television series Lost in Space." Often times the word alert makes us think of a warning of imminent danger. Today, however, let's focus on an alert of another sort, Google Alerts, offering a special service to millions, helping us stay on top of topics of interest.
We know that at the rate with which information is published to the Internet, there's no way that we can sift through everything we’d like to read as it’s posted. That’s where Google has stepped in to help us out. One of their many services allows us to set up a query for a particular topic of interest. My alerts are set up to help me keep up with the latest in educational technology. You may want choose something of a professional nature like me, or maybe something more personal and fun.
Here’s how you can set up your own Google Alerts:
1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts [1]
2. Set up your alert(s) by completing the fields on the right side of the page including search terms (your topic), type (news, blogs, webs, comprehensive, video, groups), how often (as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week), and your email address.
Alerts will be sent to your email based on the criteria you choose. There’s also a link for you to manage your alerts, allowing you to delete, change the frequency, or the search terms for notifications. Remember that you don’t always have to read the alerts if you’re crunched for time. You can save them for later or just delete and wait for the next alert. I usually find it easy to scan the alerts, bookmark any I find interesting, and just delete the message from my inbox.
Try setting up a Google Alert, and maybe the next time you see an alert in your mailbox, you won’t think, “Danger Will Robinson!”