Pages people watch
- A competitor's blog or press releases
- A software product's changelog or release notes
- A council, school or club news page
- An industry body's announcements
- A favourite writer's site that has no mailing list
Why not just use RSS?
If a site has a working RSS feed, an RSS reader is a great choice. Many sites don't, though, or the feed is broken, or it only covers part of the site. Watching the listing page itself works whatever the site offers, and you get the update by email rather than in another app.
Alerts that list what's new
When a post appears, your alert says “Something new appeared:” followed by the title. If an old post is removed or retitled, that's shown too, with the before and after wording.
Watch just the list of posts
Blog pages often have sidebars, popular-post widgets and dates that change on their own. Point ChangeGist at the part of the page that lists the posts, under More options when you add a page, and the rest is ignored.
How often to check
Most blogs post a few times a week at most, so every 6 hours on Starter is usually plenty. For news or release notes where timing matters, Pro checks every 15 minutes and Business every 5.
Share it with your team
On Pro and Business, alerts can also go to a Slack or Discord channel, or to your own tools by webhook. That's handy for keeping a whole team up to date on a competitor's announcements or a supplier's release notes.
Getting started
- Find the page that lists the site's posts, usually called Blog, News or Updates.
- Add it to ChangeGist and give it a clear name.
- Choose the posts list under More options if the page is busy.
- Wait for the first new post, then adjust how often it's checked if you need to.
What we can't watch
Members-only posts behind a login, and sites that block automated visitors. Everything else that you can open in a browser is usually fine.