IDEA: Auto Frefresh New Info Notification

[ValerieEden]

My husband is a truck driver who must find loads posted off a continually updated load board.

What I have to do is fill out a form with criteria to search for loads that will fit his needs, then up pops the results to my search.

The problem is that I must auto-refresh as quickly as possible to find new loads, and this means I have to attempt to memorize the page each time it refreshes so I can see if anything new has come up.  This can go on for hours or even days.

I cannot tell you what a lovely thing it would be if I could simply set the page to auto-refresh and then leave, letting a program do that work for me.

If there were a way to have a program identify any new info on the refreshed page, highlight it, and sound a little bell to call me over to look, I'd be such a happy camper.   

Is something like this possible with a smallish amount of work?

Thank you,
Valerie

[jgpaiva]

The refresh part, at least, is quite easy. Just download opera, which as a "reload page every" 5seconds/15seconds/30 seconds/1 minute... etc.

[ValerieEden]

Yes, I've already got an auto refresh.     

I have not found one that notifies you of changes though. 

Thanks!

[justice]

Have you looked at http://website watcher?

[kimmchii]

BEST WEB SITE MONITORING TOOL

[ValerieEden]

Thanks you guys.     

That looks pretty close to what I need, except it would be a perfect gem if it had an audible alarm. 

Ideally, I should be refreshing every 30 seconds, so being able to leave, listening for a sound, and not have to look for visual highlights would be very nice.

It's expensive, but would probably be worth it.
I'm going to try to shop for some deals.   

[ValerieEden]

OK   well I found it for free.

Now I'm suspicious.   Especially with the 'phony-websites' thing.   
I feel extremely naive right now. 

Do you think this site is legit?

http://www.vicman.ne...b/phony-websites.htm

[BigJim]

I can't really vouch for VicMan except to say that I had a question about one of their own applications recently and got a pretty quick and meaningful reply.

BTW: I don't think that the link on their site actually gets it for you for free. It's a free trial just as if you had got to the makers' site on your own.

Having said all that, I think that Internet Owl may do all that you want. And it's free - period! I'm sure that a donation would be appreciated if you like it.

Internet Owl watches websites, and tells you when they have changed. The program runs unobtrusively in the background, monitoring websites for changes. When a change is detected, Internet Owl can inform you in a number of ways, like: Sending you an email, Popping up a window, or Playing a sound of your choice Stay Informed As soon as a page changes, you'll know about it.

http://internetowl.com/index.htm

  Good Luck! As a retired long haul trucker I know what you're dealing with!! 
 

[ValerieEden]

Thought I'd let any interested parties know what is going on with this series of events...

I have downloaded Internet Owl and am attempting to get it to work for me.
Hitting some snags.
Thanks Jim, for your help.
Will post any results when I have them.

[ValerieEden]

I remembered this morning that I had promised to come back and let you know what went on.

I never could get Internet Owl to work for me.   It seemed to work for the most part, but I could not get it to reload the page that needed my password, it just kept reloading the page before it, the login page.    The writer of the program disappeared, so I guess he was done working with it.

So, creators.   FAME IS WIDE OPEN FOR YOU!   Create one of these programs that won't snag there and I'm pretty sure your name will go down right next to Lincoln, Ceasar, and Frosty.      Just let me know when you get it done.   Thanks!   

[Ampa]

How about Newzie?

Monitor Webpages
Not all webpages have feeds so that you can subscribe to in order to get notified of updates on that webpage
Newzie can monitor normal webpages for updates. For example, you can make Newzie notify you when a new image is added. It even highlights updates to help you distinguish them at one glance

-Newzie website...

[ValerieEden]

Thanks, Ampa.   

This is a private password protected page, so doesn't have an RSS feed.   

[Ampa]

That was my point!

Newzie can monitor normal webpages for updates.

ie. the page does not need to have an RSS feed, Newzie will look at any webpage and compare it to the last known version, highlighting any sections that have changed.

WebWatcher is another app that will do the same - but it is commercial, where Newzie is free.

I don't know how either would handle a passworded page, you'd have to try.