News alerts are updates letting you know about the latest news. Whether you receive updates via e-mail or some other delivery method, new alert help you stay informed about the topics that are important to your company.

For example you might want to receive an alert every time there's a news story about your company. Or you might want to stay abreast of what your clients, partners or even your competitors are doing.

News alerts save you the time and effort of searching through millions of web pages to find out the latest information about what matters to you.

There are many web-based services that make it easy to set up alerts. Which one you chose depends mainly on how you'd like your news delivered.

==Setting up news alerts==

===Option 1: E-Mail===

If you'd like to receive an e-mail each time there's a bit of news about your company, simply sign up for an e-mail based service. Enter the terms you'd like to receive alerts about and then add your e-mail address.

Be careful not to make your search terms too broad or you may end up with hundreds of alerts each day.

Most e-mail alert services allow you to chose how often you'd like to receive updates. If you're just casually keeping tabs on something, chose a once a week option. If you'd like to know the minute something happens then chose a more frequent deliver option.


===Option 2: RSS feed===

Many alert services and even search engines offer RSS feeds for your particular search terms. For example, if you search for "my company" you can then add that search to an RSS reader and it will update every time a new story about "my company" is found.

To get started you'll need to create an account at one of the many free RSS readers available. Alternately, you can download one of the many desktop RSS programs. Some e-mail clients can also handle RSS feeds, making it easy to get your alert right alongside you e-mail.

Once you've decided on a suitable RSS reader, just add the URL of the feed you'd like to read. Most web browsers display a small RSS graphic in the URL bar whenever there's a feed available on the page. Just click the RSS icon and the browser will ask what you'd like to do. Select your RSS program and it will take care of the rest.

Now, whenever you open your RSS reader you'll be able to see if there are any new news alerts available.


===Option 3: Widget and Startpages ===

Many online services offer "startpages," web pages which load each time you open a new browser window. If you frequently use a web browser, this makes a quick, easy way to stay abreast of the news. 

The trick is the add your news alert widgets to your start page. The exact method will vary according to which startpage you're using, but most offer customizable widgets. To get alerts just add an RSS widget to your start page and then paste in the URL of your new alert feed.




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