With several billion pages on the Internet and thousands more popping up every day, it's a challenge to keep track of the latest changes in your favorite websites. If only you could automatically track when a change is made on a site of interest! Turns out, you can, using any one of several online tools for keeping up to date on a website's content.
Instructions
- 1
Sign up at Watch That Page. This Web service tracks changes made at any URL you enter and notifies you with an email when new content is added to a site. You can set the parameters to be notified daily or less frequently.
The service is free for tracking a limited number of sites and charges a fee for heavy users, which is set according to the number of pages and frequency of content changes.
2Use Google Alerts and advanced search syntax to track changes at an individual site.
Google Alerts sends automatic email updates any time the Web, blogs or news stories are updated with new content that matches your keywords. You can construct an "Everything" alert that will update you anytime an individual site is updated. Use a search query constructed like this: "webpage site:webpage.com."
Just substitute the site you want to track for the "webpage.com" text. For example, to track changes at CNN's Web page, use the Google Alert search: CNN site:cnn.com.
This search will alert you whenever any one of CNN's many pages on its site are updated. Be aware that, since a site like CNN changes constantly, you will have long lists of alerts in your email inbox.
3Look for onsite tracking tools. Many sites have built-in tools that visitors can use to sign up for automatic updates whenever new content is added to the site. These tools are usually indicated by buttons and may say "RSS," "Follow," "Subscribe" or similar terms that allow users to track site changes.
You may also see links for Facebook or Twitter that, although not a true update service, are sometimes useful tools for keeping tabs on new information about a particular site.
