Searching the internet for a topic – automatically

                Are you preparing for a unit next month, and you’d like to know about any news that relates to that unit?  Rather than going to the Internet and doing a search for current articles every few days, wouldn’t you like to be able to have these searches done – and delivered to you  - automatically? 

                Here’s how. 

First, go to www.news.google.com 

Here, you can perform your search.  For example, I wanted to see if there were any recent articles about To Kill a Mockingbird, since I’m teaching that novel.  When I searched on the title, (”to kill a mockingbird” put in quotes so I didn’t receive articles about killing and mockingbirds) I found news articles and blog postings to look at.  One important note here:  make the search specific.  If I search on something too general – “death penalty” – I’ll get much more than I want.  Use more keywords to narrow the search.  For example:  race  “death penalty” 

But I’d also like to know when new information is posted, so I click on News Alerts (over to the left of the search results).  This allows me to set up a Google Alert that will come to me once a day, once a week, or as the stories are posted – my choice.  I can also choose just straight news, but I’ve chosen comprehensive so that I get everything possible.

Will I get some junk?  Sure, but I’ll also get some items I might easily have missed. 

Once I click on Create Alert, I’ll be told there’s one more step to take.  I’ll be told that a verification email has been sent to my email address.

                When I get that confirmation email, I’ll follow the directions – click on the link to Verify this Google Alert Request – and this will confirm my request.  (This has become a standard practice due to prank Alerts people have set up for others.)  This part of the email will look something like this.   

         Verify this Google Alert request:  http://www.google.com/alerts/verifyxxxxxxxx

 So I’ll click on this link.

The time may come when I don’t want this Alert anymore.  Then, at the bottom of the alert, I click on “remove alert,” and they’ll stop sending it. 

                I can set up as many different Alerts as I want, so I can follow many different topics at once.

                I’ve set it up, and now I can just check my email, which I do anyway, and see what’s new on my topic.  Easy, no?