Using Particls with Twitter:

For Twitter users, just follow @particls on Twitter. To track something, start your request with 'd particls.'

Example:

d particles follow "web 2.0"

will track all references to "web 2.0" on Twitter.

d particles follow "web 2.0", "web 3.0"

will track all references to "web 2.0" and "web 3.0"

Using Particls via IM:

If you would rather use your instant messaging program to be alerted about your tracked keywords, you can do so with any XMPP client, including Google Talk. To get started, just follow particls@particls.com. You can then use the following commands to begin tracking keywords:

follow "web 2.0"

will track all references to "web 2.0" on Twitter.

follow "web 2.0", "web 3.0"

will track all references to "web 2.0" and "web 3.0"

Will a Simplified Service Save Particls?

For whatever reason, the original RSS tracking and alerting service provided by Particls never quite caught on. Perhaps it was just a little ahead of its time. The service aimed to help us address our RSS/information overload issues before some of us even had any to address. But the concept behind the service was solid: a desktop ticker, instant prioritized alerts, easy sharing of RSS items, simple feed subscriptions, and so on. In fact, that version of Particls sounds a lot like one of our favorite desktop apps today, Snackr, which does many of the same things but launched nearly a year later.

We thought Particls 1.0 was a good first attempt at managing those sorts of issues, but it was not without its problems. The program was a Windows-only client, had some UI challenges, and, from personal experience, hit an older laptop's CPU just a bit too much.

Later, the company split the Particls solution into half, with one half becoming Engagd, an attention management engine, and the other half becoming Particls 2.0, the visualization and alerting engine. From the sound of it, those two projects have now been abandoned - the company notes that all resources have been diverted to the new project, Fountain.

Oops, a DM Limit

Unfortunately, there is one major concern regarding the new service, and it's not really Particls' fault. Currently, Twitter API limits direct messages to 5000 per day for whitelisted accounts. That will severely impact what the service can do using DMs.

Here's a video of Chris pondering this issue:

This API limit is a clear example of the sort of thing a company would gladly pay Twitter for access to, if only there was the option. It's unfortunate that Twitter's hard-set limits are actually affecting the abilities of other companies to innovate around the core product.

Yet that won't stop them from trying. For the record, Particls is not the first service to attempt to implement the missing Twitter Track feature. For example, the Twitter toolkit from TweetLater also provides this functionality. However, the difference between the two services is that TweetLater provides tracking via an emailed digest - not real-time alerts as Particls does.

Will Fountain be a Success?

Whether Particls Fountain will succeed where previous incarnations did not is something that's yet to be seen. However, the company is now actively working with the community and letting them drive the development. This critical step is vital to making a successful product, so it's encouraging to see the interaction.

Through the UserVoice site, 100 or so testers have already begun providing feedback about Fountain. They - and you - will be the people voting on the next step for the service, whether that's tracking your alerts history on the web, receiving an email digest, adjusting alerts through a web-based dashboard, or something else entirely.

If you want to give the service a try, you can do so today; just follow the instructions above. Besides UserVoice, you can also give feedback directly to the creators of Particls on Twitter: just follow @ashleyangell, @stephenkelly, and @chrissaad.

Like Yotify and Alerts.com, Trackle is your personalized web scout. Instead of having to constantly revisit web sites and services for the news you want to follow, you can use Trackle to be updated automatically when there's a change in whatever it is you're following. Want to track prices of a new Canon camera? Want to know when your favorite band has a new album on iTunes? Want to get the latest sports scores? Trackle does all that and then some.

Trackle Has the Most Alerts

What makes Trackle unique, though, is the sheer quantity of alerts they've made available. It's here that Trackle really outshines their competitors. They've also added some alerts that are unique to their service (at least so far), like the ability track crime in your neighborhood - you can even select and de-select checkboxes for the types of crime you want to track when setting up that particular alert.

There are also plans to give third party developers the ability to create their own alerts in the next version of Trackle. And the company promises their service can scale to support however many new ones are created.  

Alerts We Love

For the Facebook obsessed, a Trackle alert can notify you when someone sends you a message, adds you as a friend, posts to your wall, etc. Of course you can see all these things on Facebook, but with Trackle, you can set up an SMS alert for this. That's especially useful for students and employees who have to deal with Facebook being blocked by their I.T. department or for anyone who doesn't spend their entire day in front of a computer.

Bloggers and other information hounds will appreciate Trackle's scouring agents that let you track anything on the web, including blogs, RSS feeds, news, and more. Although other sites allow this too, what's different about the way Trackle works is that you can set up one alert but associate it with different keywords. So, for example, you could fill in "TweetDeck," "Twhirl," and "AlertThingy" as keywords you wanted to track across blogs, but save the whole alert as "Tracking Twitter Applications" instead of having each keyword as its own alert.

Smart and Well-Organized

Trackle is smart, too. Once the system has shown you something once, it's not going to show it to you again and again, even if that particular link rises to the top of Google's search results. Your alerts will always be new information so as not to waste your time.

However, one of the best things about Trackle is the look and feel of the site. The overall design is visually appealing which makes the service easy to use. Left-side navigation leads you to just the type of alert you need and each alert is clearly marked with an "Add," "Info," and "Share" button. ("Share" because Trackle lets you email or Twitter alerts). That same sense of organization is available in your Trackle inbox - the tab where you can catch up on your alerts. When you have new alerts in a particular category, a number appears next to the category name, designating the number of new alerts available. You can click the category to be taken right to it or you can scroll down through your list.

Only One Problem

The only downside to Trackle - and watch out, it's a big one - is that it appears to have been designed mainly for U.S. usage. So for example, when you're tracking crime, home prices, events, etc., you have to pick from a list of U.S. states. That's too bad, because Trackle's service deserves to be used the world over. We hope they'll expand to include other parts of the globe soon.

The white-label service LetMeKnow allows any web publisher to easily integrate the company's alerts technology into their web site by using just a small bit of copy-and-paste code. According to branchnext, that means the LetMeKnow platform can be implemented, tested, and released in days without placing the burden of software development on the web publishers themselves.

They call their technology "alerts-as-a-service" or "AaaS," but we think perhaps they haven't read that acronym out loud yet...it's not good. There's no need to use clever abbreviations to sell this product, though; the idea makes sense and can stand on its own without trying to join the "as-a-Service" bandwagon. Put simply, LetMeKnow allows anyone to integrate alerting technology into their site with little effort, adding additional value for their site's visitors, be them blog readers or shoppers.

Using LetMeKnow

After publishers implement LetMeKnow, visitors can use the service to stay informed about new posts, content updates, price changes, new comments, new reviews, saved searches, and more. The alerts they sign up for can arrive via email, mobile (SMS), instant messaging, RSS, or even via a downloadable Adobe AIR desktop software program.

Also included in the LetMeKnow service is the ability to add in extensible widgets that allow broadcasting of the alert notifications across the web, including to sites like Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle. Users wishing to share their alert notifications can do so using email, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, which are also integrated with the service.

Like Yotify, LetMeKnow also includes the social recommendation technology "AskFriends." With this, users can solicit input from their friends by sharing their scouts on sites like Facebook and FriendFeed and then gathering the responses.

For the Publishers

Besides the ease of implementation, LetMeKnow provides publishers extensive reporting tools which enable them to see how their site's visitors are using the service. There are 50 different metrics tracked that indicate how, when, and where the content is being viewed, shared, and published. Businesses using LetMeKnow also have the option to completely brand the service to their liking, so it appears to be a part of their web site and not some outside tool. Additionally, brandnext promises to deliver 99.9% uptime and support.

How much this will all cost or how well it will work isn't known as of yet. There isn't word on pricing for the service - only a sign-up form for those interested. However, if Yotify is any indication, LetMeKnow may be worth a look.

Yotify lets you track any number of things from hotel room rates to sports scores or even the latest videos on YouTube. The list of things you can track is practically endless. To help you find the scout you need, the different types are organized into broad categories which include shopping, fun, travel, classifieds, and news and blogs.

Saving Money

When it comes to product searches, Yotify is very smart. It doesn't just look at keywords, but also lets you know what the current best price is and then lets you select a checkbox to have the service alert you if the price drops below a certain point. You can also optionally check to be alerted when there are new product reviews available. The shopping section features scouts for common searches like digital cameras and laptops, but the shortcuts section lets you create more specific searches for a keyword, like a product ID or model number.

Staying Informed

The News and Blogs section lets you search a handful of sites, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The Huffington Post among others, but most people won't be satisfied with the small selection provided and will need to turn to the shortcuts section instead. From here, you can track any site's RSS feed, or for sites without RSS, you can search the blog itself just by entering its URL. You can also track changes to search results as well as track vanity search results for your name.

The shortcuts section includes a few other useful scouts, too, including one which lets you track a profile on LinkedIn, another to track local events (provided by Eventful), one for eBay auctions, and even one that tracks your FriendFeed.

Asking For Help

The social aspect of Yotify comes into play under the "Ask Friends" section. Here, you can share your scouts on Facebook and FriendFeed and get responses. Using either option will post your query directly to those social networks and when people reply you'll be informed via email. If you want to share a scout with select friends only, that can be done under the "Edit Scout" section where you can enter in individual email addresses instead. You can also share the scout with your friends on Yotify.

How It Compares

In a lot of ways, Yotify is reminiscent of the newly launched Alerts.com, a service which differentiates itself by letting you receive updates via SMS, email, voice, or IM. In a lot of ways, those various contact options from Alerts.com makes that service the more useful of the two, especially since a lot of our information overload today begins with email, which is currently the only way to receive Yotify updates. However, Yotify's options for sharing your scouts with friends give it a unique twist as do the various options for fine-tuning your searches.

Still, we definitely like the new direction Yotify is going with their service. Instead of adding to our social media burden by creating yet another place to "hang out" online, they're using the network of connections we've already built to make their service more useful to us. Our lives are busy enough, so we hope this is the start of a new trend of smart social apps.

After signing up for the Alerts.com service, you can choose from all sorts of pre-configured alerts. For example, the site offers alerts for things like news, weather, gas prices, flight info, price watches, CraigsList, sports scores, press releases, birthday reminders, horoscopes, Amber Alerts, and so much more.

However, what really appealed to me was that you had the option to configure your own personalized alerts which could be anything you need to remember to do. I'm also excited to see an RSS Feed Alert option, as well. With this alert, you can monitor feeds for keywords and receive messages immediately or on a scheduled basis via email or SMS.

Types of Alerts

Configuring Alerts

You can see an overview of the different alerts you subscribe to on your personalized homepage, a page which somewhat resembles iGoogle and its gadgets. There's also a handy "list view" which presents the alerts in a list so you can easily sort through them and turn them on or off as desired. This page also displays how many alerts have been sent out so far.

Editing an Alert

Business Model

Alerts.com is an ad-supported service. Specific advertising is inserted into the emails, texts, and voice messages sent out. The ads will be relevant to the type of alert requested by the user. This doesn't seem like a bad deal to get this sort of useful tool for free.

The platform is open and an API is currently available so that developers can create unique reminders, alerts, and notifications of their own.

The company is currently working with other third parties to expand their reach. Through their partnerships with iSAFE.org and AI Life, they will be able to reach out to 16,000 schools and eight million students in the next year.

You can sign up to start receiving your own alerts today, too. Just click here.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/have_the_news_come_to_you_with_alerts.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/have_the_news_come_to_you_with_alerts.php Products Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0800 Sarah Perez