I use google alerts. I'd pay (a little bit) for it, if I could keep the quality up.
That is to say, I'm not at fault for using a freely offered (and long standing) free service and it is worth noting when the quality of such a service starts to suffer.
Lastly, if you're doing it right, free is not "free of value" to the provider. Google, the search and information company could easily be gleaning something important from what people are using alerts for... and for what they click through on, etc. etc. and, as such, just because it's "free", it doesn't mean I'm not mindful (or entitled to the benefits) of the value I am providing.
Not at all, in fact I have a smug satisfaction each time I read stuff these days.
Years of listening to mindless defenses and personal attacks for pointing out the obvious fact "that they are just as bad as any other company" ...the taste of sycophantic tears warms my jaded heart just a litte ;)
it's in fact precisely becuase Google got such a reputation for technical excellence and 'doing the right thing' that people feel so betrayed when google's products suck, or they act in their own business interest and against their users interests.
Fewer people would bother posting a blog about a Microsoft product that sucked (or used to be good and now sucked), or a Microsoft decision that was bad for users but good for MS. Or if they did, nobody would pay attention.
But, yeah, agree with you, I'm kind of glad that it's obvious that Google is quite capable of having crappy products or 'doing evil' -- in part it's smug satisfaction, in part it's because it makes them _less dangerous_ if people catch on to the dangers of their near monopolies.
I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment (bitching about free services feels like entitlement), but Google presents an interesting challenge here because the free services die without even trying or offering a paid version. I wonder what would happen if, instead of just axing services, google started charging.
> but Google presents an interesting challenge here because the free services die without even trying or offering a paid version. I wonder what would happen if, instead of just axing services, google started charging.
If a free Google service had either the volume of users or the instensity of use that would make it seem viable as a paid service, it probably would either become a paid service or, if Google had a strategic reason to keep it free, continue as a free service.
A free service that gets axed is almost certainly one that it doesn't appear likely enough to Google that it would be worthwhile as a paid service to justify expending the staff time required to design a pricing structure and integrate billing.
The news still goes crazy over it. When Google started charging for heavy use of the Maps API, people claimed Google was performing Microsoft-esque anti-competitive tactics.
The difference there is that Google Maps was used on a majority of all products that featured maps (outside in-house things from Microsoft, or special partnerships). Google Alerts, Reader, Finance, et al are products they have been closing/breaking/disregarding for lack of interest, which is a completely opposite problem from the Maps example.
the iphone maps app was from google (until the contract expired, and apple created their own)... how could charging themselves for api use be a monetization strategy?
> Google presents an interesting challenge here because the free services die without even trying or offering a paid version
And would-be concurrence dies a quick death as they can't compete with a price of 0 and can't compete with a search index and processing power of essentially infinity.
You do pay for it with data on your behaviour, when watching and perhaps clicking the ads ,etc. Nothing's free. Starting to charge for something out of the blue generates a lot of negative feedback. There was a good case for this with Red Cross and doughnuts on HN recently.
What alternatives to Google Alerts are there? The only one I knew of that came close to it was Backtype, but they were acquired and shut down a couple of years ago.
There was an alternative called Mention[1] that made the front page[2] of HN a few days ago, I have no idea how it compares in terms of features/quality/etc though:
The pricing of Mention alone torpedoes it as a tool for anyone but a commercial entity: you need to pay them $120 a year to get like more than 5 searches! (5 searches wouldn't even cover my existing Google Alerts for just my family, to say nothing of all the other interesting things I want news of.)
You could roll your own, I suppose. Start building an index and feed it search results on a regular basis. I shouldn't be too much of a problem to hack something together with SQLite3, CRON, and your favorite scripting language.
Sounds like a fun project, actually. Thanks, I'll add it to the queue with side projects!
So I tried bing.com/news: One result. Even google alerts is providing more.
Next I tried mention.net: 4 results not even related to my search, the rest were all overview sites instead of the article. For example it showed a kickstarter category page as recently updated because it had the search term.
I would love to see a free or paid alternative that works.
I'm co-founder at mention. As we browse way more sources than Google does, you need to train the anti-noise technology a bit. After a few days, you should be all set!
Drop an email at support@mention.net if you want us to help you.
ya the launchrock text could probably use a bit of an overhaul - haven't really bothered with it since we´re pushing for the open beta :) - thanks for your interest. sneak preview will go out soon enough!
No, I like hearing which Google products used to be good but suck now. If no one "whined" about it, how would you know which ones to avoid? Very odd complaint.
Aren't we "paying" them by 'being the product'? That's the faustian bargin, I believe. You let me use your tool, I let you profile the hell out of me...
You have a good point. I suspect, as sources of profiling data, Reader, Alerts, Wave, Buzz, etc. were not producing at the level of search and mail. Plus is to be seen, but it's already descending below the level of discourse on Facebook. (https://plus.google.com/+AstronomyPictureOfTheDay/posts – I guess that's the problem with integrating it with a bunch of cheap smartphones)
