Yotify takes too much work
Yotify just launched its Web content monitoring service. You tell it what you’re looking for, and it will monitor specific sites looking for your query to return results. Then it will send you an e-mail telling you.
It’s a useful service if you’re looking for a particular item for sale on Craigslist (but nowhere else), or a review of a new Web app on Webware (but nowhere else). The problem is that you cannot easily create a search agent (Yotify calls them “Scouts”) that scans multiple sites at once, like Google Alerts does. On the other hand, Google doesn’t allow data-aware searches — you can’t easily encode a search for 1- or 2-bedroom apartments in Russian Hill with parking at $3,500 a month or under; and Google also doesn’t give you a preview of your results. Yotify allows you to refine your Scout until you have it right, and only then start to run it around the clock on your behalf.
