Testing Google Alerts: If/When You Get This, Please Let Me Know

Image Source (pre-doctored)

During my ad:tech keynote session last week, I disclosed that I'm not only a vanity searcher but a vanity alerter. Yes, I have Google Alerts set for my name so that anytime the words "Aaron Goldman" or "AaronGoldman" appear anywhere on the web, I'm notified by Google "as-it-happens."

During the panel, I also commented on how quickly Google is indexing tweets these days. Often times, I get a Google alert in mere minutes after someone @replies me (thus, including my name). I speculated that this may be part of the reason Google doesn't want/need to buy Twitter to become a player in "real-time search." Why spend the billions when you can index the content for free? (Hmm, does that argument sound familiar, Rupert Murdoch?)

At any rate, I'm curious how many other vanity alerters there are out there and how quickly they "index" and react to their own alerts. So I'm going to do a little experiment. Google seems to pull out the snippet of text around your keyword in the alerts so I'll embed a call to action right after each person's name.

Let's start with the current Search Insiders...

Gord Hotchkiss, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Janel Landis, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Rob Griffin, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Steve Baldwin, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Todd Friesen, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Todd Freisen, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (Wonder if he has the misspelling on alert too?)

Rob Garner, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Chris Copeland, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Matt Greitzer, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Kaila Colbin, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Now let's test this on some of the most active tweeps I follow and other fellow digital marketing nerds...

David Berkowitz, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (Poor David probably gets alerted every time a new theory emerges on the Son of Sam.)

Jeff Marshall, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Scott Shamberg, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Lee Odden, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Jenn Matthews, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Chris Miller, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Brian Morrissey, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Len Kendall, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Max Kalehoff, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Gian Fulgoni, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (Surely, someone from comScore is tracking his alerts.)

David Szetela, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Blagica Stefanovski, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Lance Neuhauser, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Matt Spiegel, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Jeff Campbell, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (My money's on Jeff to be the first to respond!)

David Dalka, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Bryson Meunier, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (Guarantee he responds even though he's busy with his little boy. Between the fact that he has a most unique name and is a leading SEO, there's no way he's not monitoring his personal brand reputation online.)

Matt McGowan, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Guy Kawasaki, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (If Guy's tracking his name, he's probably inundated with thousands of alerts a day.)

Jen Brady, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Saneel Radia, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert. (I know he's traveling the world right now but curious to see if he'll make time to check in on himself.)

Eytan Seidman, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Dan Perry, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

And finally, I know it's a longshot but let's try my brothers and see if the vanity alert gene runs in the family...

David Goldman, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Noah Goldman, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

Josh Goldman, please comment on my post if/when you get this alert.

And let the record show I'm posting this at 12:03pm cst on Sun. 9/6. Away we goooooo.....

Update 12:32pm: ok, my alert came through 7 minutes ago, clocking in at 12:25pm -- a mere 19 minutes following my post. Now, I'm sure it helps that my blog is on Google's Blogger platform in terms of quick indexing but it also helps that I am the kind of Type-F dork that is home on a beautiful Labor Day weekend blogging and checking Google alerts. Who else is with me?!? And, no, Pedro Garcia Millan, you don't count with your spammy comment, although your 5 minute response time is impressive.










Update 9/7: Apparently, I failed to recognize a totally different use for Google Alerts on names. Believe it or not folks, the first person to respond to this post was not a vanity alerter but a stalker alerter! Indeed, at 6:08pm yesterday, the fiance of one of the people named in this post replied via email saying that the alert was received!