I created a Google news alert but lost the subsequent activation
email. The alert exists but is inactive. How do I either activate it
or delet it so I can start over?

Hello eagles2004-ga,

Thanks for the question.

The Google News Alerts are a great service, and in general, they are
pretty easy to create and manage.  But oddly enough, the only option
for deleting a particular alert is to wait until the next time you
receive an automatic email message alerting you to a new story on your
topic.

The email will contain a link that you can click on to cancel your
alert, and it will read something along the lines of:

Remove this News Alert:
://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=[followed by lots of code to
identify your particular alert]

If you have received any alerts on your topic, and saved them in your
in-box, you can use the links in these emails to cancel your Google
News Alert.


The FAQs list for the News Alerts gives a bit mroe detail:

://www.google.com/help/faq_newsalerts.html#q3


3.  I'm no longer interested. How do I stop getting News Alerts? 

--Every Google News Alert contains instructions on how to stop
receiving emails. Simply click on the link you'll find at the bottom
of your news alert email and you'll be unsubscribed from that specific
News Alert.

4. Oops. I wanted news about lemurs, not lemons. Can I change my topic? 

--Once you've created a Google News Alert, you can't edit it. However,
it's very easy to delete the old News Alert and then create a new one
with the settings you want.


=====

As the FAQs also make clear, however, you can sign on to multiple News
Alerts at any time.  You don't need to cancel an existing alert,
before creating a new one, even if the topic is very similar to the
existing alert that you have.

Hope this is the information you needed.  But if anything here is
unclear -- or if you simply need additional information -- let me know
by posting a Request for Clarification, and I'll be happy to assist
you further.

pafalafa-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by eagles2004-ga on 02 Sep 2004 05:52 PDT

Understood. But the alert was never activated, the activation email
was accidently deleted, so no alerts are being sent. Is it possible to
re-create the activation so as to turn the alert on? Thank you.

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 02 Sep 2004 06:30 PDT

I see what you're aksing, now.  I don't think it's possible to
activate the existing Alert, since you would need (and apparently do
not have) the actual code number created for your Alert in order to do
so.

However, there's nothing to stop you from creating another Alert --
even identical to the first -- and activating that once you receive
the activation email.  In other words, you should be able to "start
all over", without ever having to cancel the original Alert.

Does this help?  Or is there something else that you're after here,
that I haven't zeroed in on yet?  Let me know.

pafalafa-ga