Python Google Alerts

The google-alerts Python module provides an abstract interface for the Google Alerts service. Google does not provide an official API for this service, so interactions are done through web scripting.

Quick Start

Install the library:

pip install google-alerts or python setup.py install

Save your configuration:

google-alerts setup --email <your.mail@foo.com> --password 'password'

Create a monitor:

google-alerts create --term "hello world" --delivery 'rss' --frequency 'realtime'

List monitors:

google-alerts list

Delete a monitor:

google-alerts delete --id '89e517961a3148c7:c395b7d271b4eccc:com:en:US'

Sample Code

This sample code shows some of the range of functionality within the module:

from google_alerts import GoogleAlerts

# Create an instance
ga = GoogleAlerts('your.email@gmail.com', '**password**')

# Authenticate your user
ga.authenticate()

# List configured monitors
ga.list()

# Add a new monitor
ga.create("Hello World", {'delivery': 'RSS'})

# Modify an existing monitor
ga.modify("89e517961a3148c7:c395b7d271b4eccc:com:en:US", {'delivery': 'RSS', 'monitor_match': 'ALL'})

# Delete a monitor
ga.delete("89e517961a3148c7:c395b7d271b4eccc:com:en:US")

Example Output

Below is an example monitor:

[{
    "term": "hello world",
    "user_id": "09738342945634096720",
    "language": "en",
    "monitor_id": "89e517961a3148c7:c395b7d271b4eccc:com:en:US",
    "region": "US",
    "rss_link": "https://google.com/alerts/feeds/09738342945634096720/9663349274289663466",
    "delivery": "RSS",
    "match_type": "BEST"
}]

Features

• Add new monitors (RSS or Mail)
• Modify existing monitors
• Delete monitors by ID or term
• List all monitors with details

Changelog

10-13-18

• Feature: Detect when user changes between Python versions during setup
• Bugfix: Setup process appears to finally be bug-free, screw python2 support

07-10-18

• Feature: Added the ability to set the frequency when creating alerts
• Bugfix: Fixed frequency settings when using the mail delivery method

05-30-18

• Change: Explicitly detect when a CAPTCHA is being thrown

05-28-18

• Feature: Take advantage of the config file concept inside of the class
• Feature: Authenticate users with a session file if it's available
• Change: Tell Chrome to avoid using Javascript so we get the old form

05-25-18

• Change: Added headers to all calls to look like less of a bot
• Bugfix: Wrapped a problem area when inspecting the forms in a page
• Bugfix: Handled setup error for Python3

04-29-18

• Feature: Allow users to setup exact match queries
• Change: Added support for Python3
• Bugfix: Removed extra calls causing an error in the decrypt process

04-26-18

• Feature: Added a command line utility to the code for easy testing
• Bugfix: Removed clobbering error inside of delete routine