User Experience: A Call for Users

There are some Google Alerts it makes sense to have: your company or place of business, your favorite band or sports team, your own name (admit it), your city + "apocalyptic blizzard." But there are other Google Alerts that are harder to justify -- notifications for keywords or events that no one would ever guess you want regular updates about.

We want to hear all about about your weirdest Google Alerts. To give you an idea of what we mean by "weird," here are the unconventional search terms that TLDR producer Ethan Chiel and I monitor closely:

Meredith Haggerty:

I have a Google Alert for "ghost." I have never ever regretted making it because when ghosts make the news it is always worth reading about it. Sometimes a phantom (and definitely not just some older lady) photobombs a family picture in a British pub, sometimes performers from Cirque de Soleil claim that the spirit of Michael Jackson is hanging around their Las Vegas show, and sometimes a long dead lady haunts a Thai security guard into complete madness. Even if the update isn't, strictly speaking, about specters, it's worth reading. I know so much more now about Chinese "ghost marriages" and the musical revival of Ghost than I ever could have dreamed.

I made the alert after learning -- far too late for my liking -- that the artist formerly known as Ke$ha (she's just Kesha now) penned a song about sexual encounter with an otherworldly being. Considering my personal interest in the "Your Love is My Drug" singer and the supernatural, I knew that I could never let a piece of news like that slip through my fingers. And it hasn't since.

Ethan Chiel:

My "sinkhole" Google Alert owes its existence to the National Corvette Museum, and the quasi-famous sinkhole there. The will they or won't they about filling that sinkhole is fun in and of itself. The alert mostly dredges up local news outlets posting blurbs about small sinkholes near them, but once in a while it provides some gems. For instance, last week I got to read no fewer than two stories about animals being rescued from sinkholes. Plus, on a more serious note, it's an interesting study in comparative media. Sinkholes happen all over the place, and it's really cool to see how and why they're covered differently all over the world. 

Please email, comment, tweet or DM us about your unusual Google Alerts: what they are, why you have them, and the strangest, most interesting thing you have ever learned as a result of having them. And check back on Friday for a new User Experience, featuring all the weirdest news that fit to post!