We all know that Google has a pretty darn good search engine. But what if you want to look for the same search each day or week to see if there is new information--did you know you can set an alert and have google email you new results from a specified search whenever there are new results? You can!
To set a Google Alert:
- Go to the Google alert page and type in your search term
- Click show options to customize the alert. (for example, a few of my alerts are set for daily, but some I find I am getting once a week.)
- Click Create Alert
Tip: try your search in Google before you set your Alert so you can be sure you are getting exactly the information you want to find. The more specific your search, the more useful it will be to you so you get the information you want, without looking through information that is not relevant. To improve your search, you may want to use Google Advanced Search. Also, here are some Google Search tips to help you search more effectively from Hubspot and Lifehack.
For example, you might want to find all new mentions of your company or your product. Set an alert with the name of your company or product and each day there is a new result, Google will email you the search results.
Amazed? It is pretty amazing; and a real time saver.
But wait...there's more!
You may be familiar with Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a subset of the regular Google search that only searches for scholarly works such as research, publications, theses, etc. It is a wonderful resource that you can supercharge by using alerts!
Let's say you are someone who is interested in research in a particular area: the competencies of academic advising. Set a Google Scholar Alert and when new scholarly work (research, publications, etc.) on academic advising competencies is available, your Google Scholar Alert will send you an email with the new scholarly search results!
To set a Google Scholar Alert:
- Go to Google Scholar. At the top left of the screen is three horizontal lines (trivia: this is called a hamburger menu . (It is called a hamburger menu because it sort of looks like a hamburger in a bun. Bun-Burger-Bun. Sort of.)
- Click the hamburger menu and select Alerts.
- Enter your search, add/modify the email the alerts will be sent to, and the number of results that will be included, and then click Create Alert.
Amazed? This is a great resource! Google Scholar may not include all the scholarly sources you want to check, but it is pretty darn helpful as a way to easily keep up on new scholarly literature.
For more information, here is Google Scholar: The Ultimate Guide (according to them!) from Paperpile and 18 Google Scholar Tips All Students Should Know from Google.
How might Google Alerts help you at work, at home, or as part of your PLN?
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