Hey everyone, just wanted to do a quick post on how to keep track of who's talking about you on the net. Nothing really unique, just a list of tools that I use often. Why is it important? Well, it's always interesting to know what people are saying about you and sometimes you want to engage in a conversation or just thank them for linking to your article.
Alright, here are the tools that I use:
Twitter Search
Twitter search is definitely the #1 source for keeping track of who's talking about you right now. But you already knew that.

Twitter search example for the term "catonmat."
Perhaps what you didn't know is that they have an RSS feed for search queries.

Location of RSS feed link for Twitter search results.
Now combined with a service like feedblitz.com you can email the RSS updates to yourself or just read them from your favorite RSS reader.
I am monitoring terms "Peteris Krumins", "pkrumins" and "catonmat".
Google Alerts
Google Alerts automatically notifies you when the Google search engine locates new results for your search terms. You can choose to have your alerts delivered via email or RSS feed.

Google Alerts email for the term "catonmat."
You can even customize the type of alerts you wish to receive. Google Alerts lets you choose to get notified when a new result appears on web pages, usenet (google groups), blogs, news or videos.
Backtype Comment Alerts
Backtype is Google for comments. Want to find out when someone's mentioned you on Reddit, FriendFeed, Digg or Hacker News? Backtype will alert you.

Backtype Alerts email for the term "peteris."
Backtype also recently launched a service called BackTweets that allows you to find who's linking back to you via shortened URLs.
Have Fun!
Have fun keeping track of yourself!
Btw, let me know in the comments if I missed any other cool tools.


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Comments
I use BackTweets to search for links on Twitter because it finds URLs even if they've been shortened. You're actually much more popular on Twitter than you may realize. :)
Many companies who care about what people are say about them use commercial services.
I work at BuzzNumbers, an online monitoring company and we do this for a whole bunch of people who's reputation is worth a bunch of value
BuzzNumbers
Oh, Peter! I think I've been fortunate enough to be caught in your twitter search snapshot!
Thanks :)
You can also use the tool at samepoint.com and SocialMention.com to track mentions of your names across social media circles including Qn/Ar sites like Yahoo answers, Askville, etc.
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