If you seem to spend half your life typing www.google.com into a web browser then there is another way to find information – and it still relies on Google. The company has a free service called Alerts which can be set up to deliver information daily, weekly or as it happens, directly to your email inbox.

Of course, since typing in ‘football’ and choosing the ‘as it happens’ setting will result in immediate inbox overload, this needs some thinking about. But, with a little care, it’s possible to strike a pleasing balance between getting the right information and not being overwhelmed.

In this step by step guide we’ll explain how to set up Google Alerts and then fine tune it to produce the right results.