To keep informed, many tools allow knowing the updates of a website. To be alerted in case of a new article, one can use RSS feeds. The advantage of this method is that it concerns only new items published on a site and that the primary information is listed (title, date, image, introduction). If social networks allow today to be informed when a new product is launched or a new article published, they have not yet killed RSS. But other techniques are worth the detour and are sometimes more relevant than simple RSS feeds.
The main shortcoming in RSS feeds is that they do not know when content is changed. One can merely know when new content is published. This is not always what the user is looking for: in some cases, we want to be informed of the drop in the price of an item. In other cases, we want to be alerted when the sale of concert tickets is open. In this regard, there are new tools that allow you to receive an email and even SMS alert when a site has changed.
A regular visit to the Web to watch for updates might be simple, but quite demanding. You can also use a web page monitoring service to make an active watch. The principle is straightforward and quite easy to set up. You get notification by e-mail, SMS or even a push.
These options available allows you to create your alert in seconds and to be alerted when a site is changed. Which is the also the strength of the service. The frequency of monitoring to check a website every hour is sufficient in most cases.
Steps to monitor your web pages and get deals with web monitoring app
– Enter the URL of the site to be tracked. It can be a homepage but also a simple web page.
– (Optional) To monitor only part of the site, select the area. It can be a price on an e-commerce site for example.
– Choose the monitoring frequency. The service can check changes to a site every week, every day, or every hour.
– Choose the type of modification of a website to locate. These can be small changes, medium changes or significant changes.
– Enter the email address to receive alerts and you are done in a blink. For more notification, SMS and Push notification are also available.
Most of this app, for instance distill web, Uptime, and Appbeat monitor works as a browser extension (and are mostly compatible with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera, also available on Android and iOS). These web monitoring app works on the principle of RSS feeds but in a more improved and stress-free way: You do not need to go to see if the sites have been updated, but the app notifies you when they were updated.
How does Web Monitors work?
Once the extension installed in your browser (Firefox, Chrome, etc.), you will see a new icon at the top right. To follow the changes of a page, you must first go on it then press the icon with the “Watch Page” button. The list, which was empty until now, then displays the site, currently under surveillance.
It is important to note here that it is not necessary to follow a whole web page, just an item that interests you. With this, the option of “Select Elements to Watch” is used. By moving the cursor on the site in question and indicate the specific items to watch. Thus, only changes to the selected sections will be reported to the user, while changes occurring elsewhere will be ignored.
Also, when an update is detected, these web page monitor will alert you by displaying a window at the bottom right of your screen and emitting an audible alert (these settings can be disabled in the options). It will also appear in bold on the list. Finally, the icon will indicate the number of changes detected with a number.
These applications also provide settings to manually check all pages, to mark all updates as read or to open them in new tabs (this feature does not work if you’ve read them before).
More Functions Available
To monitor a product of interest, “Select Elements to Watch” via the setting, then you can ask to be alerted when the price falls below a certain threshold to make a saving.
Other settings available for users includes disabling verification for a particular site but not for others, or deleting certain types of alerts. It is also possible to receive notifications by SMS or e-mail.
Why You Need to Monitor Changes Made on a Web Page
Not all sites offer RSS feeds. However, it is sometimes necessary to be aware of all the updates made on a page. These tools are specifically designed to monitor changes made on web pages. This application remains in the background on your browser and shows you a page change directly on the Page Monitor icon. It is possible to change the time interval between the checks but also the area of the page to be monitored and the type of alert (e-mail, SMS or Push Notification).
The hustle and bustle around the races for the end of the year promo sales is spread over a relatively short period of time. Therefore, to keep updated of the best price and get deals done, the use of the best web monitor app is important.