Tracking information you need to know

I have discovered Filtrbox I'm not sure why this application has taken so long to be developed as it really is quite an obvious one for those who suffer from information overload, but now it has been, I have to say it is very good.

As an Internet marketer, with many other interests, keeping abreast of all the latest goings on for clients, my business, as well as all the techie and non-techie interests, has become increasingly difficult. Google alerts, technorati, and all the many email newsletters that need to be read mean that some (errr...many!) often get overlooked.

Just tracking industry happenings, mentions of a product name, event news, a possible link etc etc for a single client can mean setting up a huge number of Google alerts or similar for those keywords. Just opening and reading all those alerts and seeing whether they are relevant to a client is time-consuming, and doesn't necessarily offer an obvious payback, unless you are well-informed about the client's niche, and can spot trends, important information etc.

For a small business, the time that this can take up is often unavailable because just dealing with email enquiries, orders etc eats into the little time available to a small or micro SME. Hence farming it out to your friendly (and increasingly time-strapped Internet marketer!)

It is however, hugely important to keep an eye on what is happening in your field, what is being said about your company etc: with the competition, whether anyone is bad mouthing your company, posting bad reviews, undercutting your prices, or even raving about how wonderful you are.

In the old days, you would pay a press cutting service or similar to monitor magazines, the newspapers, journals, events for any information about you or your competition. With the growth of the Internet, there are far more places to scan for information of relevance to you, for instance stocks and shares, investment opportunities, and it really is a full-time job to keep abreast of it all.

This is where filtrbox comes in. It automatically scans news sites, RSS feeds, and forums for your keywords and phrases, removes duplicates, and makes it very easy to scan through the results to see if there is anything of interest.

For any company, large or small, this is an incredibly useful tool, condensing the many sources of information into one place. For those of us with far too many outside interests, you can group information sources together so that you can easily check one particular topic or niche without needing to wade through the results for something entirely unrelated.

It is currently in beta, but if you want to give it a try, it is most definitely worth a shot so click here.

I'd put my money on this going a long way and becoming very popular.....these aggregation Web 2.0 tools that make life easier are always going to be winners!