Cronycle lets you integrate the widest range of sources, including Google Alerts into feeds.
Feeds are used as a starting point for your information workflow. Other sources you can use to create feeds include RSS feeds, Twitter handles, newsletters, and our own automated Topics. (Note that you can also also add files on boards.)
This posts explains how to create a Google Alert and add it to Cronycle.
Step 1 – Create a Google Alert
First, in Google Alerts, create an alert for the subject you are interested in. You will see it in your list of alerts, such as Artificial Intelligence Ethics in this example:
You can use common syntax elements to shape these alerts, such as + to include content with several words, – to do exclusions, “or” to have several options, “quotes” for specific expressions, etc. Read more about more tricks to optimise your Alert here.
Step 2 – Generate an RSS link from your Google Alert
Click on the pen of the Google Alert you want to follow to show the settings. Select RSS feed in the last option to deliver the alert to.
Save to update the alert. Now, when you hide the options, you will see an RSS icon by the alert. Right click to copy the destination link – a fully working RSS feed URL.
Step 3 – Add the Google Alert in Cronycle
Now, you are ready to add this RSS link to Cronycle. In Feeds, click on Manage All Sources (bottom left).
Paste the link in the input field to add new sources: as soon as the alert is loaded, press on the + icon to save it to your source library. It appears in the list of sources, at the top.
Next, you probably want to create a feed to see content flowing in from that Google Alert. You can select one or several sources, of different kinds if you want (Twitter handles, RSS, Google Alerts, Topics). Click on “Create Feed” to build your own custom feed.
You can also start adding keywords to further refine your feed. From there, you can pin interesting content to boards and continue the workflow all the way to publishing.
Step 4 – Try a smart alternative: Cronycle Topics
While you can do the above to use your current set up, know that we have an alternative to Google Alerts, which we call Cronycle Topics. Our mission is to help you gain time by surfacing relevant content. You can search and preview Topics easily in the Discovery section in Cronycle, or from Add/Create Feeds.
We identify thought leaders, or influencers, per Topic. They are ranked in terms of influence within the community of the Topic, so we are confident they bring value to the discussion. We look at what these influencers share about the topic on Twitter to surface important and relevant content. You can read more about how this works on this post from Vishal, our CEO.
You can add one to five Topics per feed, and add keywords within Cronycle to you can get content at the intersection of some of our 50k Topics and another dimension.
You can also limit the influencers to take in consideration, by deactivating them individually, and/or by selecting a range.
To try all this, create an account for free, which gives you all the power of a pro account for 28 days. No credit card required!