Google Alerts - a waste of time?

Artashes

Artashes

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Staff member
Google, now partly a public company, has obligations to their shareholders. But sometimes I do not understand what they are trying to accomplish.

Imagine the disappointment when they spend millions in their lab and then come up with a product like Froogle that most people use just to compare prices and not actual store.

Now they have just released Google Alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en

Am I the only one that thinks that this new invention is nothing more than a spam-generator that is going to fill your inbox with alerts that you can do without? I'm not very clear on how this works, but it looks like it just imitates users searching for terms or following up with a story that they can accomplish just by dropping by Google web site in the first place?

As much as they try not to be an Evil corporation, some of the things they do makes me think if they are actually going to sustain all their userbase in years to come.

Best,
 
I was recently thinking the same thing. Since they became publicly traded, they started acting like they have to impress everybody. I think just their search engine shows enough for them. Google Alerts probably is more of an unwanted feature in the long run. Search results are changed daily, so the amount of emails you can get for added listings could be incredible.
 
To add my 2 cents...I think google is just trying to expand into everything they possibly can - and not doing that good of a job. Some of the ideas sound good on paper (at least to a manager somewhere), but in practice [like the google alerts] just don't seem that wise.

Of course, I've been bitter about google ever since orkut came out...
 
Actually, I quite like the alerts :(

It never sends the same link, and only updates you when a page 1 article (new) is live. I get one email every 2-3 days, per keyword.

For instance - we're going through an intensive SEO period right now, so monitoring 14 keywords for our placement. Google nicely drops us any new links that make it to page 1 on that search term.


Simon
 
Simon said:
It never sends the same link, and only updates you when a page 1 article (new) is live. I get one email every 2-3 days, per keyword.
Click to expand...
One e-mail per 2-3 days is not that bad I guess.
Simon said:
For instance - we're going through an intensive SEO period right now, so monitoring 14 keywords for our placement. Google nicely drops us any new links that make it to page 1 on that search term.
Click to expand...
Now this is a great way to utilize the new service. I didn't even think of the possibility to track down keywords to benefit your SEO efforts. Quite original solution, Simon, I might add.

Best,
 
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