Google™ Alerts Tutorial

Not all alerts are created equal. Nor do all alerts bring doom and gloom. Actually, you can use travel alerts to

  • Plan your vacation
  • Gather crucial information
  • Avoid problems
  • Research destinations
  • Learn about deals

So how much is all this great information going to cost you? Nothing! Well, a little time, actually.

Google Alerts will deliver the information to your email inbox. It's a two-step process.

1. Create travel alert account
• Set up a Google account or set up an alert to another email address.
• Then set up a free alert.
2. Manage your travel alerts

On this screen you can [Delete] or create a [New Alert]. You can also edit an alert by clicking on edit

1. Create a new travel or destination alert
2. Edit an existing travel alert
3. Delete an alert (be sure to tick the check-box)

When you click [New Alert], you should see this screen. This is where you set the travel alert search details as well as the type of alert and frequency.

1. Search terms^* - "disney world" (in quotes) will search the entire phrase, not the individual words.
2. Select the source of your travel alerts. If in doubt, start with "comprehensive"
3. Get the travel alerts delivered by email or feed.
4. Frequency of alerts. Unless you are in a rush, "once a week" will ease the clutter in your inbox.
5. Finish setting up your travel alert by clicking [Create Alert] or you can [Cancel]

^* - Search terms can be fine tuned with (+) and (-) operators. As an example, in the "disney world" example, we made sure to get discount included with the (+). But since we didn't want any Disney Channel alerts, we used an exclusion operator (-) for channel.

Now just wait for Google to deliver all sorts of interesting travel informatio.

My alerts for "travel bargains" come to my Gmail™ account and looks like this: