Four steps to get Google Alerts via RSS

Lonny's picture

So we have been looking for a way to get Google mentions of Appropedia fed via RSS. So after lots of attempts, some meeting with complete failure and some just very not secure, we found the following solution - Use Google Alerts to send mail to Mailbucket.org that serves as a mail to RSS gateway that, in turn, is read by a RSS reader. This is how we finally did it:

1. Pick a hard to stumble upon name for your feed, such as MyGoogleAlertsAreCool
2. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts
3. Set up the feed you want, such as:

  -Search term: Appropedia (this should be whatever term you want alerts on)
  -Type: Comprehensive
  -How often: As it happens
  -Your email: MyGoogleAlertsAreCool@mailbucket.org

4. Go to http://www.mailbucket.org/simple/MyGoogleAlertsAreCool and Click to Confirm your Google Alert*

Now you can just set up your RSS reader (such as Google Reader) to read http://www.mailbucket.org/MyGoogleAlertsAreCool.xml and you are done!

I really hope that Google just starts providing this as a service. Please let us know if there is a better/easier way to do this.

*You may want to copy the cancel this Google Alert URL in case you want to delete it later.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • <ref>, </ref> around notes. <nowiki>, </nowiki> around text not to be formatted.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <sup> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <big> <small> <img> <ref> </ref> <references> <nowiki> </nowiki>
  • Allow MediaWiki syntax (limited).
  • Images can be added to this post.
  • Handle "[[Page]]" (wikis), [http://... link text] (exts)
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • You may use [inline:xx] tags to display uploaded files or images inline.
  • You can use context links in the text to create context-related links to pages or sites that provide additional information about a word or phrase.

More information about formatting options

Captcha
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
6 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.