WRT alerts for cracks etc. It’s an old trick, the crack sites are heavily spidered, as are torrent sites. So you can usually get a patched re-release of your software before most downloaders get a chance to try the crack. If you time stamp or “kiss” the creation date of the binaries of your app it can be fun seeing pirates label the crackers “lamers” when the new crack “fails”.

Another good use for the alerts is building SEO. Getting updates on potential keywords etc gives you an idea what your market place is doing in terms of competition and also partnering with complimentary products.

I never thought of using Google Alerts when running for office. Great idea! I’d assume Barack Obama used it too since his staff seemed to be so technically literate.

Another awesome idea of looking for cracks and so on. I never thought of it as such. I have alerts for “LandlordMax” which generally brings those into view too, but it would be nice to have it separated (almost like a priority). Thanks

It’s something I’ve used for a number of years, hence my higher than average usage I guess. I found it invaluable during the 2007 Federal election here in keeping track of press reports during my campaign, what the other candidates in my electorate were doing and so on.

Now of course it’s setup more inline with my product. But it’s the same theory.

Another cool use is for keeping track of zero day crack/torrent/keygen releases of our own software products. Fore warned means fore armed and it’s a lot easier to invalidate the pirates by changing the code so that the vunerability to the app’s security is removed, moved or otherwise altered.

Although you’re lightly saying it, I actually did think a lot about it before publishing it. At least for checking up on your competition

It’s cool to hear you have a dozen keywords setup. That’s above most people I know. Congrats!

Serioulsy, they are very useful. I have around twelve setup for a variety of keywords. Turns up many useful little bits and pieces.