Google Alerts and Kizmet

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by cookderosa, Aug 21, 2015.

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  1. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I'm always impressed and interested in the links Kizmet shares. I wanted to ask if she uses Google Alerts, but then I thought that would be a fun question to ask everyone here.

    Do you use Google Alerts, and if so, which ones?

    I have many:
    CLEP
    Homeschooling
    Tuition
    College
    and others (including my name and variations of it...cuz haters gunna hate)
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I thought about making some sort of stupid remark about using the Illuminati as my information source but then I figured I'd give a real answer. The first part is simple. I do not use google alerts. Ever. Too passive for me. I want to get what I want when I want it. In terms of search engines I use google advanced search almost exclusively. I have a bunch of parameters that I use regularly and depending on search terms, some well placed quotation marks and you can turn up some good stuff. I'm particularly fond on the "site or domain" field. For example, we know that American colleges and universities all sit in from of the .edu TLD. You can restrict your search to university websites by dumping .edu into that field. Just as American schools all use the .edu TLD, every other country has their own for their universities. For example, you can filter responses and just get info from Japanese universities by using the .ac.jp TLD In general, the quality of your results increases remarkably by asking the most precise questions possible. Beyond that, I am a big fan of news aggregator sites like digg.com. There are about a dozen that I visit routinely, just to read the news. I've found that if you do these searches routinely you can sprint through the new results in just a minute or two. Happy hunting everyone.
     
  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Oh, another tip . . . as much as I use the little degreeinfo search imp, it's not the best around. Depending on what you're looking for you can do a more efficient search of degreeinfo by dumping degreeinfo.com into the "site or domain" field at google advanced search and then using the other fields for your keywords.
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Agreed, funny though it sounds, Google is much better at searching DegreeInfo than DegreeInfo is.

    I don't use their alerts, though. I have information overload as it is.
     
  5. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    It's probably a symptom of this forum platform. The other forum uses the same platform, and the search function is terrible. It's often advised to use Google instead.
     
  6. RacerBoy

    RacerBoy New Member

    I have heart a lot about Google alerts. But didn't use anyone there. But I am little bit curious to know what it is?
     
  7. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    It's just a feature that you can set up to receive an email with a summary of every link that appear on the internet containing your search word or phrase.
    I get a daily email that includes every occurrence of the phrase "dual enrollment" and if there is a day where there weren't any occurrences, I don't get the email. It's pretty simple.
    I had someone set up a website using my name once, so I also am set to get a flag when my name is used.
     
  8. GeeBee

    GeeBee Member

    Or you can just type "site:degreeinfo.com" (without the quotes) into the search bar, followed by your keywords.
     
  9. RacerBoy

    RacerBoy New Member

    Thanks for let me know about Google Alert. I'll try for this.
     

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