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We use it to keep track of certain search terms and it works just great. It has advanced search options, as well as RSS Feeds and Trackback. Google Alert seems to have received a lot of recent press coverage, including this recent article in SearchEngineWatch.

Helpful Tip:
I use Google Alert for my personal site. I use it to track when other pages link to my site.

Per their About page:

With Google Alert, you can automatically keep track of anything on the web! Google Alert is the web's leading automated search and web intelligence solution. It runs daily Google searches for you and emails you when new results appear. Many people use Google Alert to keep track of what the web is saying about them, their interests or projects they are involved in. You can use Google Alert to keep track of any time someone mentions your name on the web. You can also track mentions of your website, your place of work, or your favorite hobby or celebrity -- the uses are limited only by your imagination. Click here for some great search ideas and some useful tips. The Frequently Asked Questions provide more detailed information about Google Alert. Selected as BBC's Website of the Day and USA Today's Hot Site, the free Google Alert service enables people in over 120 countries to stay up to date with their interests. Users include journalists, marketers, IT professionals, lawyers, doctors, salespeople, educators, researchers, and government employees. Click to start using Google Alert right away - it's easy and free!

This would definitely work to create a local awareness service. Interesting if you could also combine the RSS feeds on the back end to get automation. I think Google Alert has RSS operable. I wonder if Google will open up the location search results to RSS output.

This is great... combined with something like GoogleAlert you could watch for anything new springing up in your neighborhood!

It would be realy great if Google opened up a personalization API - like the service currently offered by Google Alert. That would really be something...

If this could be combined with a much more frequent Google web trawl, the path would be opened towards realtime web searching, where web content is indexed and ranked in a matter of hours. When that day comes, services like Google Alert will come into their own. Just imagine being notified by email an hour after someone mentions your name!

Many services have come to rely on Google's API, and in turn, on Google's organization of web content. For example, the automated search service Google Alert may have to reconfigure their service to meet the new demands.

... though I do wonder whether providing the Web APIs altogether is a very smart move from a purely commercial brand-building perspective. There are tons of Google add-ons floating about the place. GoogleAlert is a relatively new kid on the block.

For a company "focused on R&D", they seem to be taking lots of care over their trademark - lots of discussion about this, for example here. Recently, Googlert which is one of the better known Google APIs services was also asked to change its name. Don't see why GoogleAlert is any better, so maybe they'll have to change it again...

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. All this recent activity might be in the spirit of shoring up the Google brand and business image before an IPO...

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. All this recent activity might be in the spirit of shoring up the Google brand and business image before an IPO...

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. It's nice to see that they let them keep the word 'Google' in the name - I guess Google is trying to keep web developers on its side.

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. It's nice to see that they let them keep the word 'Google' in the name - I guess Google is trying to keep web developers on its side.