[dylburger]

A lot of people on this thread wanted a true "Google Alerts" tool that notifies you when a post on HN contains a given keywords in the title. I agree, so I forked the workflow and created my own that does this: https://pipedream.com/@dylburger/google-alerts-for-hacker-ne... .

The README explains how it works in detail, but you can modify the KEYWORDS constant at the top of the Node.js code step to receive alerts for any keywords you'd like. Then, on the schedule you specify (e.g. every 30 minutes), this hits the HN API and sends you a Slack message with the story link.

Let me know if y'all have any feedback on this, happy to modify it to suit specific needs. If you know Node, you can fork and run a copy yourself and modify it however you'd like, too.

[Austin_Conlon]

I just use Google Alerts itself and scope the URL, for example site:https://news.ycombinator.com "Apple Watch” or site:https://news.ycombinator.com tennis

[dylburger]

I didn't realize that worked! Google Alerts is awesome.

[gcatalfamo]

do you get notified reliably? I always found out Google Alerts don't fire as often as they should

[Austin_Conlon]

I do. I have each set to fire “as-it-happens,” but it’ll often be a few hours before it appears in my email.

[codeplea]

How do you know it's reliable? In my experience, Google Alerts misses a lot of mentions on HN and Reddit.

I would challenge you to try an alternative (like https://f5bot.com/) for a week. You may be surprised at how many more hits it gets over Google Alerts.

[d3v]

Perhaps you should share that you own/operate f5bot

[codeplea]

Of course. It's not a secret.