Keep your friends closer, but your enemies closer. And by closer I mean in your email.

Ever heard of Google Alerts? I use them at work to keep tabs on what media sources are writing about the company I work for. A Google Alert is simply a timed, automated email Google will send you if a story with your selected keywords is published in their search engine.

Here’s what their’ main page says:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

So you can imagine how useful this tool is for keep track of your competitors. Let’s say you create a site about fly fishing. Maybe you don’t know who all your competitors are, or you want to find out what they’re writing about. Well, sign up for an alert, plug in the keyword ‘fly fishing’ and select comprehensive, news, blog, or web (I usually pick comprehensive) and Google will email you every day with everything your competitor is publishing.

Of course you can also use this tool just for your own personal enjoyment. I plugged in the keyword “florida gators” and get an email every morning with all the latest Gator news.