So I'm curious how many out there use Google Alerts? Its a FREE Google program and if your not you should be.

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Let me explain what Google Alerts is. Basically you go to the site and you enter what words you would like to be notified if they are either searched for or if they turn up in the search.

Ok what do I mean by if they turn up in the search. Well for a example lets use "John Smith" Say I have a Alert set up on that. Well Billy Bob goes in and searches "John Meyers". One of the searches that Billy bob clicks on is:

Home Time Football team
The home time football team of John Meyers, David Simpson and Mark Smith won the game on Friday.
hometimenewstation.com/football......

Well because that was clicked on your going to get a Alert because that click contained the words you have in your alert. So hits like that don't really do anything. However hits like this one do:

John Smith Attorney at Law
The law team of John Smith won its court case against idiots who hack on the web because they are one step ahead of them.
johnsmithlaw.com/idiots.....

So yes you will get a hit or miss of results. The more popular of a result the more hits you will get. Some will mean nothing and some well they will give you some great information. You would be shocked to see that there might be more information about you on the web that you had no idea till you had someone click on your name in a Google search.

So here is how to set it up. Go to GOOGLE ALERT's and set up a account with them. Once you set that up you need to start adding the words you want to be notified on. You can enter as many as you want. I recommend setting it up for "comprehensive" and to get alerts once a day.

You can do as many as you want to. Add your log in screen name that you use for sites, your name, maiden name, spouse's name, kids names...the list could go on and on. I have quite a few...

So here is a example of the alerts I get. Here someone must of searched for someone else and well my first name showed up as another persons name and my last as the last of anothers (like I did above). So this alert was worthless...

Then I get ones that make me smile like this one I got a few days ago that notified me that basically someone was trying to hack my photobucket account:

So for reasons like that I do recommend getting Google Alerts. Yes you will get junk but sometimes it pays off HUGE. FYI they did not get into the photobucket account.