How would I go about creating a Google Alert for this?

I love that you call it Google-fu, too! So, I tried a test for my state, and this seems to work:

“protest at capitol” california

Then, for the other options, you’d just decide what you want. I’d leave it at ‘all’, set it to ‘as-it-happens’, and ‘best results’ (seems to bring up more events).

You could also add a + before your state name (i.e. +california) to ensure that you get news about the correct capitol, but it didn’t change my results, so it’s up to you.

@MissAnthrope See, my worry is that then I’ll miss tons of stuff, since it’s often phrased as “a protest on the steps of the capitol”. But then I worry that if I’m too vague, it’ll spam the crap out of my email, since there’s not exactly a protest every other day.

I see what you’re saying. I’ve tried several combinations and the one I mentioned above gives the best results (at least for CA). Maybe:

“protest at” +capitol +california

@MissAnthrope Ok.

@papayalily – I haven’t used Google Alerts before.. are you able to go back and fine-tune it later?

@MissAnthrope I think so. At the very least, I can cancel one and create another one that’s better. Course, too much fiddling and it kinda trades all the time you save…

@papayalily – True.. but handy if you get it just right! Good luck.. it’s my bed time now. :)

@MissAnthrope Night nite, sleep tight.