Alerts Category Archive
More Alerts: 2.0 in 1.0 Clothes?
I've added a couple additional alerting services to my Current Awareness and Alerts Page. Trackle is another online commercial product with a free trial while TrackEngine seems to let you track up to five pages for free.
But the most interesting one was suggested to me by a founder of FollowThatPage. He mentioned using WebAgent, a site I had not seen before. This Dutch alert tool (with English and Dutch interfaces) is not only free, but it include the ability to make tracked pages public. Look through the Home Categories to see some examples of publicly tracked sites. The public community element reminds of Web 2.0 software and yet the site seems to have a more classic 1.0 design. Most of the tracked pages are .nl ones, but it is still an interesting concept.
Follow That Page: 100 Free Pages Tracked
Follow That Page is a new alert service for tracking changes to Web pages. Free registration is required for use and allows tracking of up to 100 pages. It checks for changes once a day (at 11PM PST). It includes options for Ignoring Numbers, Reporting Additions, and Reporting Removals. The reporting email shows the changes of a page. A paid version is being developed that would allow more frequent checking and more than 100 pages. My Current Awareness and Alerts page has been updated with that addition.
New Features at Google Alert
Google Alert announces new delivery options. "Results can now be delivered as email, HTML, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 or TrackBack feeds." It also now includes direct links to Google's cache.
Google News Alerts
Google has added an alert service for its news databases. The Google News Alerts is in beta and is also listed on the Google Labs page. With the demise of other free alert services, especially Northern Light's current news alerts, this is a great addition for anyone who wants to keep up with the latest news. Just be careful not to choose search terms that will return too many hits. The default "once a day" option should help if you do, but be careful with the "as it happens" choice.
Two New Alerts for Web Searches
Googlert and SearchAlert.net are two new free services that offer email alerts when new search engine results are available. Googlert was launched in January, but I'm not sure when SearchAlert.net started. Googler works only on Google and does require registration for a free Google API key. SearchAlert.net says that it "continually monitors the big Web search engines" but does not specify which ones. Alerts page updated with both of these.
Alerts Page Updated
I've updated the Search Engine Showdown Current Awareness page to reflect the death of the Northern Light alerts and to add several other alert services.
SpyOnIt Turns Off
As of today, the free SpyOnIt alert service has been turned off. Their home page states that " We regret to announce that the Spyonit service is on hiatus effective July 26, 2002. However, we do intend to bring it back online after a significant upgrade and the addition of several exciting new features." They hope to have something back up by late Fall 2002.
Free Mind-it Gone
As announced previously, today the Mind-it current awareness tool is no longer a free service.
Mind-it Goes Commercial
Netmind announces that the formerly free Mind-it current awareness service for Web pages would only be available as a commercial product effective Jan. 15, 2002.
NewsTracker Gone
Excite has killed off its NewsTracker current awareness tool, one of the first Web news alert services. Its search voyeur is also gone, shut down sometime last month. Its News Search is still available.
EOMonitor Dies
EOMonitor, formerly javElink, a Web site change tracking service is no longer available. The Showdown Current Awareness Tools page has been updated for EOMonitor and the also defunct Deja tracker.
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