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The world of alerts in Messenger

August 7, 2007 on 12:09 pm | In Features | 7 Comments

It seems like everywhere you turn these days, something or someone can send you an email or a text message on your phone the moment something happens. Yahoo! Messenger offers a similar personalized alert service for a variety of topics ranging from news to horoscopes.

I was reminded of this feature when I received a stock alert last week. It was for a stock I no longer own but I had set an alert to prompt me when it reached a certain price point so I would know to sell it. (Maybe if I had waited, I could have retired this week. )

Yahoo! Messenger is integrated with Yahoo! Alerts, a service on the Yahoo! network that lets you subscribe to alerts that you can receive via email, on your mobile phone, or in Messenger. When an alert is sent to you in Yahoo! Messenger, a small pop-up window appears with the content.

Here’s a snapshot of available alerts:

I’m a big fan of the news alert. When my mother was living overseas, I set up a keyword alert to send me any news stories that included the capital city she was living in. I’ve also found some good airfares on frequent routes through the Best Fares alert. And don’t you want to get instantly alerted when this blog updates? Use the Feed/Blog alert to set that up (or click the “Create an Alert” link on our sidebar). On the flipside, if you have your own blog or RSS feed, you can offer an alert to your visitors.

Another handy alert is Traffic. I spend a lot of time (too much in fact) in my car getting to and from work, so I get alerts when my usual freeways back up. You can even set the timeframe that you want traffic alerts – for example, I set it to only alert me right before I get on the road every night.

To add or remove personalized alerts, visit http://alerts.yahoo.com and sign in with your Yahoo! ID and password. If you have existing alerts that you’ve previously set up you will find them under the “My Alerts” tab.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

7 Comments »

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  1. I am using the Yahoo! Alerts for my Yahoo! 360 account. That way it’s really easy to find out when somebody commented on my blog or left a comment on my page. Or even when somebody wants to connect as friends. I think it’s a really great feature

    Comment by Seinfeld — August 7, 2007 #

  2. to bad nothing works right on messenger!

    Comment by quatschkoph — August 8, 2007 #

  3. [...] ha incorporado un nuevo sistema de alertas para el messenger, que informan de novedades tanto en el horóscopo como en las [...]

    Pingback by Nuevas alertas de Yahoo! para messenger — August 8, 2007 #

  4. right on quatschkoph.

    Comment by me — August 9, 2007 #

  5. I guess you are talking about Google or Apple shares?

    Comment by user — August 9, 2007 #

  6. i am trying to get the alerts & sounds better like the old yahoo messenger. i hope that u can help me plz thankz

    Comment by allan — December 17, 2007 #

  7. Hi Allan,

    On the right hand sidebar of this blog, under Downloads, is a link to Old Messenger sounds. Hope that helps,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — December 17, 2007 #

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