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.
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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
