Google Alerts are a great way to get relevant search results emailed to you directly. It’s good practice for businesses to setup a Google alert for their business name, or any other relevant keywords and phrases, to ensure that they can keep on top of what people may be saying about them (or their competitors!) online. It’s probably a good idea to set one up for your own name too, if you’re trying to build your own personal brand.

I set up four Google Alerts for topics that interest me: interactive fiction, creative writing, screenwriting and online community.

Here are the results that I received for these topics today:

Interactive fiction

I actually really enjoyed the first search result – an article from the How To Appreciate Retro Games blog – because I love retro games (especially IF) and I had never seen this blog before. I’m really excited to have found it (and I’ve added it to my RSS reader for quick access in the future!)

The second search result took me to a blog post by Snow McNally. The actual article didn’t interest me but browsing through the blog brought me to an interactive fiction game they had created called Lethal Elevator From Hell, which is pretty cool. It’s a digital narrative developed in the format that I’ve been thinking about using for the final assignment, so it’s worth spending some time playing with it later as part of my research.

Creative writing

I was worried that this subject was way too broad and that I’d be bombarded with search results, but no. Only one search result today. A blog post by a guy who wants to write and work (don’t we all!) Not the kind of thing I’d be looking for if I was doing a Google search specifically on this topic.

Screenwriting

Again, another broad topic but only one search result. Not very useful, as I don’t live in Zumbrota, MN and therefore wouldn’t be able to attend their screenwriting workshop.

Online community

Of the three links sent to me for this topic, the first one was by far the most useful. As a Community Manager myself, I’m always doing research on ways to grow and manage online communities. This article was well-researched but easy to understand and translate into my own scenario, and I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. A really valuable find, and something I may never have come across if I hadn’t set up this Google alert!

What kind of topics do you find Google Alerts useful for? Share you favourite results in the comments below…