Anyone can create content on the Internet, including information about you, your school, your community! Keep an eye on what's being said about the topics you care about using Google Alerts. You tell Google what words to watch for; when they appear on the web, you receive an email message. Google is constantly indexing the most common publishing sites like newspapers, social networks, wikis, blogs, and videos so you can receive notice within minutes or hours of the content being posted, if you wish.
To set up Google Alerts:
- Go to www.google.com/alerts
- Enter the search term - your name, the name of your school, the district. Enclose phrases or names in quotation marks so you get accurate results. (ie: "Noelle Kreider")
- Choose the type of information you want to watch for or choose Comprehensive to get it all.
- Choose how often you want to receive notices.
- I recommend once a day so all results are compiled in one daily message.
- Choose "as-it-happens" if you want messages as soon as Google sees your search term posted online.
- Enter your email address.
- Click Create Alert.
- Repeat steps 1-6 for each word, phrase, or name you want to keep an eye on.
Once you have one or more alerts established, you can use the sign in link on the alerts page to manage your alerts, including adjusting the settings, deleting them, etc.
