Ask YC: Do you receive Google alerts on your company and industry?

[andrewljohnson]

Do you think this is a reasonable way to consume news? What tricks do you have for getting relevant alerts?

[pg]

I also recommend Backtype Alerts (http://www.backtype.com/alerts), which tell you when something is mentioned in a comment.

[ivankirigin]

For Tipjoy, I use:

  - Twitter search in a client like TweetDeck - multi column is awesome
  - google alerts
  - backtype alerts

[answerly]

Google Alerts is super helpful for tracking mentions of your company on the web. You should also check out search.twitter.com for mentions of your site/brand on twitter.

I haven't been as successful with using Google Alerts for broader industry news. There are too many false positives unless you are in a very niche category.

[jaxn]

You know what would be cool is a Pandora style learning system for Google Alerts. "Yeah, like that", "No, not that one", "Add variety", etc.

[teej]

I've seen the daily media feeds that several PR companies provide, from as small as a 2-man shop to Ogilvy. They weren't any more useful than a few terms thrown in Google alerts.

[bbgm]

Yes. And have been doing so for years. Not the only thing I track, but works quite well. Of late, I also track particular terms on twitter, made easier if you use Tweetdeck

[shuleatt]

We were using Google Alerts but have since changed to filtrbox