It all started with Google Reader – a steaming post of my favorite blogs that I can quickly access on my blackberry? YES PLEASE. Next, I discovered Google Documents - I could share information with my bridesmaids and keep documents online that I could access anywhere without constantly spamming myself by emailing them back and fourth. Then, when I started blogging more frequently I starting monitoring my traffic and viewers with Google Analytics. I love looking at where my visitors are coming from and get really excited when they are from faraway places like New Zealand and Egypt. I also added Google FeedBurner later on since some of the information it monitors is slightly different.
Recently, I learned of another amazing Google product from my friend Meredith, Google ALERTS!
From the Google Website :
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams
Or, um – stalking yourself obsessively? I input a few variations of key words relating to my business 4th&Folded and each time someone uses them or links to me I get an email linking to the story or post. Pretty clever huh? You can adjust how often you receive the information, including getting it as-it-happens. I found this to be incredibly useful since analytics only runs once a day and I don’t usually see the article or post linking to me until the next day when I investigate the spike in traffic. For me it took a little manipulating of the search terms to get results I wanted. I was getting a lot of stories about poker players who “folded” their hands and came in “4th”….not quite what I was going for :).
Do you use Google Alerts or have any technology time savers?
Haha I use Google for everything too, including Google Apps (for email for my own domain) and alerts!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you know this but you can set up Google Analytics to send you daily anaytics stats via email. It's a good time-saver and everything is in a convenient PDF format. :-)
@Geek in Heels - What? How do I do that?!
ReplyDeleteI guess I should also add Google Apps to my list as well, I forgot about that one :)