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Thursday, 10th June 2010

Tweaks to Google Alerts You Might Want to Know About

ResourceShelf pal, Barry Schwartz, posts details of some tweaks that are now live with Google Alerts.

Barry's Search Engine Land Post focuses on a few issues. A recent tweak to the Google Alerts algorithm took place. This all began at the end of May when readers of Search Engine Roundtable noticed that they were receiving fewer alerts.

+ A Quality Change

Deals with the number of alerts you receive per day. In other words, the algorithm change was intended to reduce recall but improve precision.

You have two options that allow you to receive: 1) Up to 20 or 2) Up to 50. You can go back and forth by simply going to the Alerts homepage and clicking the other option. We would love if Google would add a day of the week limit feature. For example, on weekdays you want 50 alerts but on the weekend you want 20. While we're at it another feature that would let users to turn off their alerts for a period of time (going on vacation/holiday) would also be great.

+ The Name of the Default "Type" of Search

It used to be labeled "Web" and now it's labeled "Everything." For the most part it's just a name change. Results will still come from all types of web sites. Of course, you can use the pull down option to limit your query to only news, video, blogs, or discussions. Google suggests that if you're getting to many with the Everything option to consider modifying your search or select another time period. Perhaps from once a day to once a week.

Update: Two things we are checking on with Google

A) Are the 20 or 50 alerts numbered determined by the time period you choose (e.g. 20 alerts per day or 50 alerts per week)?

B) When we just went to edit an alert and went to number of results it still offers 10 or 50. Also, if you have/had ten selected will this automatically be increased to 20?

See Also: All About the New Google Scholar Email Alerts; Google’s Anurag Acharya Lends a Hand (via ResourceShelf; May 12th, 2010)

Sources: Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable

Views: 1152




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