You don't need to go surfing around the web to keep current on a given topic. Updated information can be delivered, as it occurs, to your email box or mobile device. These arrive in the form of newsletters, news alerts and page alerts.

Here are some resources to check out. Unless otherwise indicated, they are free:

• Newsletters: Many of your favorite websites publish newsletters to which you can subscribe. Before signing up, check their privacy policies to see if they sell or rent your name to other parties. Also, some websites send you additional advertising (which they call "offers") unless you opt out during the subscription process. In any case, consider maintaining a separate, email address for newsletters, that you can dispose of if the mail gets too spammy.

• News Alerts: At Google and Yahoo you can set up free delivery of news items that match your search terms, to be delivered to your email or mobile device. Other news services and newspapers also offer alerts. Check at the website of your favorite news source.

• News Feeds: In addition to getting news alerts by email, you can get them via an RSS news aggregator (Click here to learn more about RSS.) The advantage of RSS news is that you recieve the latest news and alerts available.

• Web Alerts: You can be notified via email by Google whenever there is new information on the web about a topic of interest to you. Google checks the top 10 news results and the top 20 web results. It's an easy way to monitor references to your name, links to your website, and keeping track of one or more specific topics. You can also set up search alerts and page alerts (when a specific web page changes) at the metasearch engine, Profusion. There you can customize a combination of search engines that will perform routine, repetitive searches and email the results to you.