I found a browser-based service called w3Monitor at http://w3monitor.com that claims to search web pages at URLs you specify, then alert you to content changes on those pages. Is this reliable? Is it legitimate and safe to use (the privacy policy is pretty weak)? What would be the best service to use for this kind of business need, or competitive analysis in general?
Hi, You might like to checkout www.webalertpro.com - a great new web application for monitoring competitor websites. It's an online service, simple to set up and can be used to monitor multiple sites and thousands of web pages, providing detailed daily change reports. It includes sophisticated filtering tools, so receiving only the most relevant updates is a breeze! All the best, Joel (Disclaimer - am company co-founder )
Not only the competitor sites, but any kind of sites uptime and downtime can be monitored with the various available free website monitoring services like 100pulse. Even there are options that you might get an instant alert through gmail, igoogle gadget, sms and twitter.