Get alerts on Local Events!

My kids love Dora and Diego. And, who doesn't like a yard sale in the neighborhood, or a Eric Clapton concert? The only problem is that I don't have time to keep checking when Dora is coming to town or when someone decides to share their "junk" with the rest of the community this weekend.

Alertpedia to the rescue! You can now receive alerts on local events  in any area of your choice, for free. For example,

• Tell me when there is a "Dora" event in "New York, NY".


• Tell me when "Clapton" plays in "Austin, TX".


• Tell me when there is a "yard sale" in "Ann Arbor, MI".

You will get alerts for yard sales in Ann Arbor and some miles around it. So, even if you don't find your exact town in the location dropdown, pick a nearby city and you should be good. If that doesn't suffice, let us know and we will gladly add your wonderful town to the list.

Hope your weekends are filled with some more fun! And be sure to let us know how you like these alerts or if you want to see something more. As with any good thing in life, please share this  news with your friends.

- Dharani

Get alerts on job listings in your area

How often do we check career sites looking for that dream job in our dream location? (and then reality checks in and the current boss walks in with a project plan. :) ) The good news is that there are dozens of those perfect jobs out there for each of us. But they disappear while we have our heads deep in the current job. Like the mighty mouse discovered in  "Who Moved My Cheese" don't stop looking for a job even when the current one seems very secure, especially when the economy is turbulent.

Well, here's how you can have your current job and not miss the dream job too. Alertpedia now supports job alerts by area and category!

e.g., Alert me when there is a "Healthcare" job in "Chicago, IL"

You can filter the alerts on search text:

• e.g., Alert me when there is a "Healthcare" job in "Chicago, IL" with the keyword "nurse" in the title


• Alert me when there is a "Software developer" job in "Austin, TX", with the keyword "AJAX" in the title

Set up as many as you need. It's free. Watch them daily or weekly. Be sure to let us know if something is missing from the feature, like your favorite job category.

PS: And good luck with finding your dream job! Drop us a note if you found something useful via Alertpedia alerts. We like to believe that we are making a difference! :)

While you are in the job hunting mode, here's another good book to find your dream job: What Color is Your Parachute?.

-Dharani

Tips for moms for safety & savings

Fellow Moms-of-the-world,

Alertpedia is my 2nd project, the first being bringing up my kids. There is a selfish motive in running Alertpedia (no, not the Google ads, no one clicks on them ever!) - safety, health, and savings for my own family! And, of course, since one thing we moms are constantly short of is TIME, it's better that someone else (Alertpedia) takes care of this while I can do other fun things (like signing up our kids for MORE activities ;-) )

So, here're some alerts I set up on towards my own needs:

Safety & Health of my family:

• Product and food recalls (for: "lead" "peanuts" "allergies" etc.)


• Health and Fitness (tell me when there’s some news about asthma, avian flu, allergies, exercise tips, or a new diet guru telling us how cholesterol is actually good for us ;))


• Severe Weather (tell me when there’s a thunderstorm warning or another snow-shoveling day coming up for my area)

Save some money:

• House prices in my area (Tell me when a house goes on sale in my zip code so I know how much I really have with the house. Tell me what houses are selling for in California these days so I can stop all this california dreamin'.)


• Craigslist - (tell me when someone posts a Wii for sale in the tri-state area Craigslist. Tell me when a nanny or a web designer is affordable in the area. )


• Air fare deals (tell me when there’s a sale on flight from Newark to Honolulu so I can start packing for aloha land!)

Stay informed:

• Traffic (tell me if there’s bad traffic on I-695 during my commute hours so I can take Route-47 and get stuck in the congestion there, instead :) )


• News (tell me when my kid's school or my hometown or "soccermom" comes in the new)

I don't personally have alerts set up on Earthquakes because I don't live in California.. hmmm but earthquakes can occur anywhere (except on the moon, they have moonquakes there), so may be I should set one up just in case :) !
Hope that helps,

Dharani
Alertpedia: Looking out for you moms

Sample alerts you can set up on Alertpedia

Folks,

We started Alertpedia in the beginning with a very simple goal: alert us about product recalls and earthquakes. Over time it has grown to include many more categories that improve the safety and savings of everyone, while saving time from repeatedly monitoring websites.

Well.. choices lead to questions, and questions lead to a blog post such as this :)

Question: What are some example alerts I can use Alertpedia for? 

Answer:

• House prices in a zip code (e.g., tell me when a 3-bd room house goes on sale in my zip code for 600k-800k)


• Craigslist - things on sale, jobs in your area (tell me when someone posts a Wii for sale in Philadelphia on Craigslist; tell me when someone needs a web designer in NYC)  


• Product and food recalls (tell me when there is a toy recall due to lead, food recalled due to peanuts)


• Air fare deals (tell me when there's a sale on flight from Newark to Seattle) 


• Health news (tell me when there's some news about asthma, avian flu)


• Traffic (tell me if there's bad traffic on I-695 during my commute hours)


• Weather (tell me when there's a thunderstorm warning for my county)


• News (tell me when "obama" comes in the news)


• Earthquakes (tell me when there's an earthquake in California)

 Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have more questions!

thank you, Dharani
Alertpedia: Looking out for you.

Get alerts on house prices

So, everyone is watching the real estate bubble wobble all around us in the USA. The buyers are watching the prices fall and waiting for that bottom . The sellers are watching the prices fall and waiting for them to reverse course.
Bottomline: Everyone is watching the house prices. Like,

• The neighbors sold their house for WHAT??


• What are houses like ours selling for these days in *my* area? (not just some nationwide average that groups Manhattan mansions with our Suburbia)


• When can I afford that McMansion in Sunnyvale?

The team at Alertpedia is happy relieved to finally add house price alerts to Alertpedia so that all of us can stay on top of this thriller. This is what you do to start getting your email alerts as houses go on sale in your area:

1.  Go to real estate alerts page on Alertpedia


2. Enter the ZIP code where you want to monitor house prices (you live there? you want to move there?)


3. Select a price range, type of house, # bathrooms, # bedrooms [or leave some of them as Any to get all the alerts for that Zip code. But, that may be too many.]


4. Submit

Simple. Now, sit back, relax, and let Alertpedia do the watching for you.

PS: One thing we know for certain: everyone needs shelter. The housing market will turn around one of these days.. or months.. or years. The rumor is that real estate is really hot on Mars these days!! :)

Dharani