To be notified anytime a topic that you are interested in appears in a news story, website, or blog, just sign up for Google Alerts. At this web page you will see a box, like the one below, where you can enter your information. Just type in any name, area, or topic, word, or groups of words in the Search terms box. Use the drop down box next to Type to choose the web areas you want to cover. In most cases you will choose Comprehensive, but you can also choose to search only News, Blogs, Videos, or Groups. Choose an option for the box titled How often. You can choose once a day, as it happens, or once a week. Then you fill in your email address and click on the Create Alert button.

You can return to the Google Alerts page at any time to edit or delete your alert or to add new alerts.

I have a Google Alert that follows the name Sandy Berger, while I get a lot of alerts about the Sandy Berger who stuffed documents into his pants in Washington, DC, I can also see whenever someone writes about me. Luckily when the alerts about about Sandy Berger, computer expert, they are always much more positive than the news about the other Sandy Berger.

You are sure to find many different ways to use the Google Alerts. They are extremely helpful in research, but can also be used to track everyday things that you are interested in.