In view of the rumours that Google Alerts is the next service to be canned by Google as part of its ongoing rationalisation exercise and strategy to integrate everything into its Google+ service, this looks like the ideal alternative. Particularly relevant if you want to maintain some independence from the Google ‘capture net’ (and not everyone wants to have a G+ account). As Robin Good writes:

“If you are not familiar with this kind of tool, its key purpose is one of actively and persistently search for a set of keywords you specify and to report to you, via RSS/email of any instances of new content mentioning your selected keywords.”

I’ve been a long-time user of Google Alerts and have noticed a fall-off recently in the ‘hits’ I’ve been receiving, which might infer that the service is not receiving the same attention from Google that it once did. I’ll certainly be giving TalkWalker Alerts a try-out. #alerts #smtrng