Alert messaging

Alert notification is a natural evolution of the concept of RSS[1] which makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner.

Alerts are typically delivered through a notification system and the most common application of the service is machine-to-person communication.

More advanced systems (for example AOL) provides users with the choice of selecting a preferred delivery channel such as e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), instant messaging (IM), via voice through voice portals, desktop alerts and more.

The advent of technologies such as RSS and now alert notification are an effort directed to creating an antithesis to spam: the information being received by users is exclusively from opt-in requests.

The Federal Communications Commission is continually working to improve their ability to put in place a notification system in case of emergency, in an attempt to help protect citizens.