Google Alerts: Track What Matters To You

Analytical software enables you to shift human resources from rote data collection to value-added customer service and support where the human touch makes a profound difference. --- Bill Gates

How can be find the gems in the clutter than surrounds us?

Define what you want to track and use Google Alerts, a remarkable overlooked tool. Google will then scour the online world and send you links as they happen, daily or weekly. You can quickly scan the results to decide what to keep. I use PersonalBrain to turn this data into information and then wisdom (see my review). I'm building up a nice database for quick, future reference.

Examples
I'm tracking these keywords at present:

• Canada Revenue Agency
• life expectancy
• life insurance Canada
• trust

Life Expectancy
Here are some of the interesting, timely articles about life expectancy:

• UK life expectancy increases by 20% in 20 years (home equity may be used to fund the longer retirements)
  
• Life settlements hurt by increasing life expectancy ("21st Services of Minneapolis sent the market reeling by extending estimates by 20% to 25%)
• Simple Steps to Increase Your Life Expectancy (sunlight, exercise,...)
• Restructuring portfolios for retirement is a cautionary exercise ("Canadians are also living longer - but not necessarily healthier adding to potential health costs.")
• Cleaner air adds 5 months to US life span (link to New England Journal of Medicine research)
• Ernst & Young: Retirees should live frugally ("...More than half of those entering their retirement years in North Carolina are at high risk of living longer than their savings will last")
• Life Expectancy in the NFL ("the life expectancy of an NFL player is 55 ... as much as 20 years less than that of the general population")
  

Since we're living longer and longer, we need to save more, save sooner and squeeze more out of our savings. We need to look after ourselves better so we can enjoy the extra years in good health.

There's plenty that you can do with the results. Do you send interesting, relevant articles to clients, prospects or centres of influence? You've now got more sources --- some obscure. Do you want to keep track of your competitors? Setup an alert. Do you want to see if you or your company make the news (which can be good or bad)? Setup an alert.

Try It

Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed. --- Thomas More

Go to www.google.com/alerts and give it a try. There's lots you can do. If you don't want comprehensive searches, you can even limit monitoring to news articles, the web, blog posts or video.

Links

• Using Google Alerts for Intelligence Gathering (Pandia Search Engine News)
  
• The best Google tools that you never use (China Daily)
• 8 Unique Ways To Use Google Alerts To Capture New Customers (Searching Solutions)