Narcissism on the cheap; Google Alert

So I have this enduring relationship with myself. I’m pretty frikkin’ awesome, at least I think so. However it’s sometimes good to hear how much everyone else likes me too…

With that in mind I’ve been using Technorati to gather the “buzz” about myself for a while. To see which bits of my writing engage the community, etc. More recently I thought I would like to monitor Google rankings. Unlike Technorati you can’t just do any old Google search and hit the feed icon. However Google Alert do something which should fill that gap. Right now I have my 3 narcissistic feeds: “tom croucher”, “tom hughes-croucher” and “kid666″ hooked up to my feed reader.

There are a few issues though. Unless I want to heft some cash, that’s my lot. Google Alert allows you only 3 search feeds before you have to show, the proverbial, green. Also when signing up the default option steers you down the path of getting spammed daily by email reports. You have to poke around a bit to get feeds out. While this isn’t a problem now they are set up, I’m looking for something better, something free-er, like beer.

So if anyone knows of a service or program like Google Alert that is also free, please let me know. Needing an API key is fine, I’m only planning to hit up my searches like once a day.

Technorati Tags:
feeds, google, googlealert