At Last I'm a Lert

As the saying goes, "Be alert...the world needs more lerts!" I'm contributing my share.

I've discovered Google Alerts, and I'm using it to watch for some terms. Google Alerts lets you know when something is published on the Web that matches your keyword in the Alert. I, for example, am using three alerts: my name, "usability", and "information architecture".

So far the results have been mixed. I've caught a couple of references to my old books, which is exceedingly gratifying. And I've caught a few good blog entries here and there about my professional subjects. But a good many notifications are less than intriguing. Signal-to-noise definitely trending toward noise, but infinitely easier than doing tedious, full-out Google searches to stay current.