Dan Bricklin
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Google Alerts Tutorial: Getting Started

Monitor your name as a first alert

Everyone should track mentions of their name online, so we'll use this to set up our first Google Alert. Go to the Google Alerts home page, and fill in your name where it says "Search Terms."

Start with Comprehensive alerts

Google Alerts can be used for searching Web pages, blogs, news, groups, or videos. The simplest way to get started is to use a Comprehensive alert, which will do all of these searches at once. This is already selected, so you don't have to do anything to make it work. Once you become a Google Alerts expert, you can use search commands that only work for each of the specialized alert types.

Choose a delivery rate

Google Alerts has three rates of delivery: as-it-happens, once a day, once a week. If you use a very popular search term, you might want to slow the rate down to once a day or slower, but for your name as-it-happens will be more interesting.

Enter your email address

Then you have to enter an email address for delivery. This will already be filled in, if you are using a Google account.

Confirm the alert you have created

If you are not logged into a Google account when you create an alert, Google will send you a verification email. Clicking the verify link in this email will get your alerts started. Gmail sometimes treats Google verification emails as spam. If you don't get your verify email, check your spam folder.

Cancel any time

Each email alert you receive will have a link for deleting it in Google Alerts.

| Next: Managing Multiple Alerts >