Alternative for Google Alerts

Alternative for Google Alerts

Google alerts LogoThe demise of Google Reader has gotten all the attention over the last two weeks but for those in sales and marketing, another favorite web tool also appears to be on it last legs – Google Alerts. Users have relied on Google Alerts to notify them every time new information from search results appear on the web for specific keywords important to them.

Updates for the popular program have all but stopped. Many active users are reporting that the frequency has dropped and some are even saying that they are not receiving Alerts at all. This created the observation that Google Alerts might be the next to be shut down, in the same way that Google Reader was dumped recently.

I have counted on Google Alerts to monitor all the keywords that are important to me for many years. It has become an entrenched part of my daily sales process. With each new notification in my inbox, I have been able to stay aware of mentions of my company name, stay current on competitors activities and most importantly for my purposes, monitor information about each of my key customers and prospects. It has always been fresh and relevant reason to contact my customer or prospect about the info. It is not uncommon to have them respond with “I hadn’t heard that yet, how did you know?”, serving as a productive way to establish and build credibility with them.

Mention Logo and linkIn my search for worthy alternative I discovered a tool called Mention. Mention allows you to create alerts for your brand, your industry, your company, your name or your competitors and be informed in real-time about any mentions on the web and social web. Sound familiar.

As with most worthy web tools, they offer both a free and a premium version for individuals at $19.99/month and a team version for group use. They also offer multiple versions including a PC and Mac desktop, Chrome add-on, and both Apple and Android versions for your smartphone.

Mention provides much richer, deeper capabilities than Google Alerts. You can do all of this right from your phone or desktop:

  • Media and Social Monitoring – Monitor millions of sources in 42 languages and don’t miss anything published on social networks, news sites, forums, blog or any web page.
  • Anti-Noise Technology – Remove the noise coming from homonyms and spam by using their in-house technology that learns from your behavior.
  • Team Work – Share your alerts with any user and assign tasks to your team members, in real-time right from your smartphone or desktop. Leverage the power of your team.
  • Live Alerts – Get alerted in real-time via email and push notifications of new mentions. Don’t waste any time. React quickly and efficiently.
  • All Devices – Access mention from anywhere. Use the web app, Chrome app, desktop version for PC, Mac or Linux or mobile version with the iPhone or Android app.
  • Smart Actions – You can react to any mention the smart way. Retweet a mention, share positive mentions directly on your Facebook page….
  • Priority mentions – Most important mentions are flagged according to several criteria : influence and authority of the source and latest interactions you had with them.
  • Statistics & data Export tool – Get an overview of your mentions by source, language, over selected period of time, generate PDF reports or export data in CSV format to analyze them your own way.

I especially like the Smart Actions capability, being able to respond with a tweet or mention using the social platform that I know my customer is monitoring.

The statistics and data export capabilities for those of you who enjoy digging into the details of your actions.

Google Alerts is still functioning for some, especially those with five or fewer alerts, but if you are an active user that is dependant on getting this type of information to perform your job well, check out Mention.

Three questions that I would like your responses to:

  1. Is Google Alerts still working for you?
  2. Have you noticed any slowdown?
  3. Have you found any other alternatives that are working for you?
The Web Tools Guy – Miles Austin - 9 years ago

[…] Plus 5 more… […]

Mike Kunkle - 10 years ago

Been experimenting with the same alerts on Google, Talkwalker and Mention. Many, many more hits with mention, but some are just because I like a page on Facebook and the FB picture box displays on the blog. Sometimes I get a hit for a blog post and can’t figure out why. Mention hasn’t missed any real hits, though, and the others have.

MZazeela - 10 years ago

Certainly worth checking this out.
Thanks for the idea, Miles.

Lisa Michaud - 10 years ago

Great find. Thanks for sharing. We have also been searching for tools to replace our typical Google Reader, Alerts, etc. Their email program is changing pretty significantly as well. I believe they may be integrating Google+ with search to get their social platform to take off. Love technology! Always changing:) – Lisa – Actuate Social

RobertGlaesener - 10 years ago

BigGirlBranding you may also try http://t.co/tbAUtUqPkH, as a free alternative, featured this week on http://t.co/Qa2yDo0AhK

    BigGirlBranding - 10 years ago

    RobertGlaesener Thanks, I”ll check it out!

RobertGlaesener - 10 years ago

Hi Miles, you may also want to try http://www.talkwallker.com/alerts, launched some hours ago. You can even expoert/import your Google alerts directly from Google Alerts to Talkwalker alerts.

John Kypriotakis - 10 years ago

Google Alerts still working fine for me… Also using Yahoo Alerts. and InsideView.

susansilver - 10 years ago

Been using mention and I love it. It pulls in forum threads which is great for my needs. My only issue is that I still have not found a tool that pulls in mentions from Google+ Communities or Facebook groups. Still have to use some clever Google searching to make it work and find those threads.

Alternative for Google Alerts | The Web Tools Guy – Miles Austin - 10 years ago

[…] Original article: Alternative for Google Alerts […]

TDunevant - 10 years ago

I was just reviewing Google Alerts today with a group and wished I had this info before.  Looking forward to investigating more; thanks Miles.

florabrown - 10 years ago

I haven’t experienced any problems with Google Alerts lately, but in the past I did have periods of time when I didn’t get notifications. Thanks for alerting us to Mention. We definitely need to know about alternatives in this changing environment.

Shirley George Frazier - 10 years ago

I’ve experienced no problem with or slowdown from my Google Alerts account, which continues to send me daily notifications.
 Yahoo!Alerts is complementary to my Google account. Yahoo! delivers slightly different, yet still-on-point results.
Your review of Mention is appreciated, and it will stay in mind for my business as a third option whether Google Alerts ends or continues.

    Miles Austin - 10 years ago

    Shirley George Frazier  Ahhh yes, thanks for reminding us of Yahoo! Alerts.  Glad to hear that you have experienced no slowdown in your Google responses. It seems to be that the more alerts you have set up, the more likely you will experience a slowdown.  I have quite a few alerts, and change them to reflect my needs, and I have gone over two weeks without receiving one alert. Meanwhile I am picking up the info on one of the other “listening” services that I use.  The biggest frustration is trying to find someone at Google to shed some light on the plans or performance of any of their tools.
    Thanks for sharing your experiences Shirley! Hope to see you back soon.

Kathtennant - 10 years ago

Hi – InsideView is another application that is great for sales people to use.  You can set up watchlists to monitor both companies and people.  You can also build lists and monitor social media.

    Miles Austin - 10 years ago

    KathtennantAgreed, InsideView is a terrific tool and one of my favorites. InsideView capabilities are actually highlighted in my new book coming out this fall.  
    Full disclosure – Kathy works at InsideView as a Senior Strategic Customer Success Manager.
    It is always great to see you stop by Kathy. Keep in touch and let me know about all the cool stuff going on over there at InsideView.

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