I was chatting to a colleague about Internet info I’d picked up – the usual (interesting!) stuff one gets from various web sources – and he asked me if I ever did any real work… It seems that every day (hour!) brings a slew of information about new technologies, new apps and new functionality for existing apps. The latest, cool, must-have Internet thingy appears almost as fast as the ‘old’ favourites disappear. So how can you keep your water-cooler king/queen reputation and get your work done? We only have tap water (!) but here’s how I do it: with Google Reader and Google Alerts. Shush, it’ll be our secret… So how do Google Reader and Google Alerts help you get the balance right between time spent on research and the value you get from it?

RSS Feed

It’s all to do with RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Just think of RSS as a way that websites and blogs can distribute new content as it becomes available in a way that RSS feedreaders, such as Google Reader, can pull in and understand. Google Alerts also uses RSS but only to push information –more on that later. Each time I post on this blog, my RSS feed is updated automatically; any RSS feedreader that is aware of my feed will get the update. Anybody subscribing to my blog via RSS will also get the update through their chosen feedreader. Simple as that. If you’re not familiar with the process, try clicking the RSS feed icon above to see how this works. Now how can this simplicity be harnessed?

First, get a Google Account

You’ll need to open a free Google Account.  Once you have an account you’ll be able to add other Google products including Google Reader and Google Alerts.

Google Account Screen

Second, add Google Reader

Google Reader is a free web-based RSS feedreader that allows you to search for feeds, subscribe to them and organise them into folders. Now that bland sentence doesn’t do justice to what’s actually happening here: once set up, you’ll have your own window on to the web. You’ll be able to find information sources that you want to receive updates from, whether blogs, forums or newsfeeds, and organise them in the way you want to see them. If it’s got an RSS feed, you can grab it. It’s like the front page of your own magazine! Forget spending time checking out loads of your favourite websites – they come to you. But you cry (?) what about content that doesn’t have RSS? What about interesting content that does have RSS that I’d like to find? Searching for content takes time. That’s where Google Alerts come in. I love this app!

Third, add Google Alerts

Another free web-based app. Obviously Google indexes a lot of web content; all you need to do is tell Google Alerts which keywords you’re interested in and what alert type or source you want: news, blogs, web, video, groups or everything (comprehensive). Alerts then keeps a watchful eye, looking out for content it finds that matches your keywords.

Google Alerts Setup Screen

You can use phrase matching with double quotes so Alerts will find content that contains, for example, “blue widget in manufacturing”. Negative keywords are also supported so if you’re interested in “blue widgets” but not manufacturing use: “blue widgets” -manufacturing. Up to 1000 alerts can be created which is more than enough for most people. Until recently, alerts could only be sent to a specified email address. This was cumbersome particularly if you had the alert frequency set to ‘as-it-happens’: several emails received each day for every alert you have soon gets out of hand. Email alerts is still an option but recently Google added RSS delivery that hooks into Google Reader. All those ad-hoc alerts can now be combined with your other RSS subscriptions within one application view.

OK, so what…

Are you kidding? This saves me countless hours trawling the net for up-to-date and relevant information that’ll keep me on top of what’s new. With a bit of practice you can skim quickly through the dross, read the really interesting, newsworthy stuff and save some for later. Any quality sources you come across that have an RSS feed, you can subscribe to with one click and new posts will magically appear in your preferred RSS feedreader (eg Google Reader).

Also, try to think out of the box when using Google Alerts. Here are some of my favourite uses:

• What’s being said about your competitors?
• What’s being said about your company or brand (reputation management)?
• What’s being said on the blogs and forums that you could comment on? (brings traffic/brand devel.)
• Use ‘site:www.yourdomain.com KEYWORD’ as an alert where KEYWORD might be something you’d never find on your site. Think pharmaceutical, gambling or adult-related! This might provide an early warning of a hack.

There are probably other free apps out there that do the same job as Google Reader + Google Alerts but I’ve not come across them. If you know of any, please let me know!