Google can now watch a topic and ping people about it
Anyone can now tell Google's chat style search to keep an eye on a subject, and Google will send a phone notification when something new shows up.
Google turned on monitoring in AI Mode, its chat style version of search, for everyone in the world. Until now it was only for people paying for Ultra and Pro subscriptions.
Robby Stein of Google announced the rollout. He says you tell AI Mode exactly what to look for, and Search then keeps checking things that change on the web, including sites, forums and social posts, Google's real-time data sources, and a Shopping Graph of more than 60 billion products. Alerts arrive in the Google app. Stein says AI Mode will also suggest things to monitor while you are searching.
The examples Google gave are everyday ones. New restaurants or pop-ups opening nearby. Local holiday things to do with the kids. Back in stock and price drop updates.
It is already live
Barry Schwartz covered the rollout the same day. Gagan Ghotra posted that web monitoring is going live and that users can tell AI Mode what they are interested in, then get notifications through the Google app for new updates. Ghotra later posted a screenshot of his first monitoring notification, about an X post he had published roughly an hour earlier. So the checks are running fast, not once a week.
Why a small business should care
Two of Google's three examples are small business examples. Someone can ask Google to tell them when a new place opens near them, or when a product comes back in stock, or when a price drops. If your shop matches that request, you get put in front of a person who already asked to hear about it, with no ad spend.
Ghotra sees a marketing angle in it. He suggested brands could ask their own audience to set up monitoring for their content or products, the same way people ask for email signups. That is his idea, not something Google said.
Nobody knows yet how Google decides which sources feed a monitoring alert, and Google has not published anything about that.
What to do
Open the Google app, go to AI Mode and ask it to monitor something about your own business, like new openings in your category near your town, or your own brand name. Watch what it sends you and where the information comes from. If it pulls from your Google Business Profile or your product pages, keep those two things current, because that is the material the alerts are built on. If nothing comes through about you at all, that is the gap worth closing first.
Just tell AI Mode exactly what to look for & Search will continuously check across changing info on the web like sites, forums and social posts
Users now can just tell AI Mode what they are interested in and AI Mode automatically will keep an eye out there.