# News Finder & Monitor (`lokki/news-finder-monitor`) Actor Google Alerts, but structured, automatable, and API-first. Monitor companies, competitors, topics, launches, and press releases from Google News RSS, public feeds, Hacker News, and Product Hunt. - **URL**: https://apify.com/lokki/news-finder-monitor.md - **Developed by:** [Ian Dikhtiar](https://apify.com/lokki) (community) - **Categories:** News, Automation, SEO tools - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## News Finder & Monitor **Google Alerts, but structured, automatable, and API-first.** Find fresh mentions for companies, competitors, people, products, and topics — without scraping full article pages. This Actor is built for **fast brand and competitor news monitoring**. It reads RSS/Atom feeds, creates Google News RSS searches from your queries, dedupes results, and returns clean rows with headline, source, date, URL, snippet, matched queries, and discovery metadata. ### Why use this Actor? Most news scrapers try to fetch full articles and run into paywalls, publisher blocks, browser costs, and messy article extraction. This Actor does the simpler, more reliable job first: > **Find the news. Normalize it. Dedupe it. Export it. Monitor it.** Use it for: - Brand and company mention monitoring - Competitor/news tracking - PR and press-release discovery - Product launch monitoring - Investor and market intelligence - Daily AI/news brief inputs - n8n/Make/Zapier/Sheets/Notion news workflows ### Sources supported #### Query search If `useGoogleNewsRss` is enabled, every query becomes a Google News RSS search feed. Example query: `OpenAI acquisition` #### Built-in source presets | Preset | Sources | |---|---| | `tech_news` | BBC Technology, NYT Technology, NPR Technology | | `world_news` | BBC World, Guardian World, NYT World, NPR News | | `business_finance` | NYT Business, NPR Business, SEC press releases | | `press_releases` | PRNewswire, BusinessWire, SEC press releases | | `launch_startup` | Hacker News frontpage, Product Hunt feed | | `science_space` | NASA releases, NASA Science, ScienceDaily science/space | You can also add any RSS/Atom URL in `customFeeds`. ### Example input ```json { "queries": ["OpenAI", "AI agents", "Apify"], "sourcePresets": ["tech_news", "press_releases", "launch_startup"], "customFeeds": [], "useGoogleNewsRss": true, "googleNewsLocale": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en", "maxItemsPerSource": 25, "sinceHours": 168, "dedupeMode": "url_or_title_source", "requireQueryMatch": false, "includeSnippetHtml": false } ```` ### Input options | Field | Type | What it does | |---|---|---| | `queries` | array | Keywords/companies/topics to search and match | | `sourcePresets` | array | Built-in feed bundles to scan | | `customFeeds` | array | Extra RSS/Atom feed URLs | | `useGoogleNewsRss` | boolean | Generates Google News RSS search feeds from queries | | `googleNewsLocale` | string | Google News locale params, e.g. `hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en` | | `maxItemsPerSource` | integer | Caps how many items are inspected per source | | `sinceHours` | integer | Keeps only recent results when feed dates are available | | `dedupeMode` | enum | `url`, `url_or_title_source`, or `title_only` | | `requireQueryMatch` | boolean | Filters preset/custom feeds to rows matching your queries | | `includeSnippetHtml` | boolean | Includes raw feed snippet HTML for debugging | ### Output fields | Field | Description | |---|---| | `query` | Query that generated the row, if from Google News RSS | | `title` | News headline/feed item title | | `sourceName` | Feed/source name | | `sourceType` | `google_news`, preset name, or `custom_feed` | | `sourceFeedUrl` | RSS/Atom feed URL used | | `publishedAt` | Published timestamp if available | | `url` | Original article/result URL | | `snippet` | Clean feed snippet/summary | | `matchedQueries` | Queries found in title/snippet/source, or source query | | `rank` | Position in the source feed | | `discoveredAt` | Actor discovery timestamp | | `dedupeKey` | Stable key used for dedupe/debugging | ### Example output ```json { "query": "OpenAI", "title": "OpenAI announces new partnership...", "sourceName": "Google News", "sourceType": "google_news", "sourceFeedUrl": "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=OpenAI&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en", "publishedAt": "2026-07-03T12:30:00Z", "url": "https://example.com/news/openai-partnership", "snippet": "OpenAI announced...", "matchedQueries": ["OpenAI"], "rank": 1, "discoveredAt": "2026-07-03T12:35:00Z", "dedupeKey": "..." } ``` ### Ready-made monitoring templates Use these patterns directly in Apify Tasks or schedules: #### Daily Brand Monitor Track your company/product/founder plus related terms every 24 hours. ```json { "queries": ["Apify", "Crawlee", "Apify MCP"], "sourcePresets": ["tech_news", "press_releases", "launch_startup"], "useGoogleNewsRss": true, "maxItemsPerSource": 25, "sinceHours": 24 } ``` #### Daily Competitor Monitor Track competitors, funding, launches, and market narrative shifts. ```json { "queries": ["OpenAI", "Anthropic", "Google Gemini", "Perplexity AI"], "sourcePresets": ["tech_news", "business_finance", "press_releases", "launch_startup"], "useGoogleNewsRss": true, "maxItemsPerSource": 20, "sinceHours": 24 } ``` #### Startup Launch Monitor Track Product Hunt, Hacker News, launch chatter, and press releases. ```json { "queries": ["launch", "startup", "Product Hunt", "AI startup"], "sourcePresets": ["launch_startup", "tech_news", "press_releases"], "useGoogleNewsRss": true, "maxItemsPerSource": 30, "sinceHours": 48 } ``` ### Cost and speed This Actor only reads RSS/Atom feeds. It does **not** open browsers or fetch full article pages, so runs are usually fast and low-cost. Cost drivers: - Number of queries - Number of presets/custom feeds - `maxItemsPerSource` ### Limitations - It finds news items; it does not extract full article body text. - Some feeds provide short snippets only. - Google News result URLs may point through Google redirect URLs depending on feed format. - Feed availability and timestamps depend on the source. - This Actor is not a substitute for licensed news databases. ### Legal and responsible use This Actor reads public RSS/Atom feeds and returns metadata/snippets those feeds expose. You are responsible for complying with source terms, copyright rules, and downstream use policies. ### Suggested workflows - Schedule daily runs for brand/company monitoring. - Export to Google Sheets or Notion for a news dashboard. - Send new rows to Slack/Telegram/email via webhook automation. - Pair with a separate full-article extractor only for selected URLs that matter. ### Changelog - `0.1` — Initial release: Google News RSS query feeds, source presets, custom feeds, dedupe, snippets, freshness filter, local/cloud storage support. # Actor input Schema ## `queries` (type: `array`): Keywords, companies, people, products, or topics to find in news. Each query can generate a Google News RSS search if enabled. ## `sourcePresets` (type: `array`): Built-in source bundles to scan. Pick none if you only want Google News RSS for your queries. ## `customFeeds` (type: `array`): Extra RSS or Atom feed URLs to scan. ## `useGoogleNewsRss` (type: `boolean`): Create Google News RSS search feeds from each query. This is the easiest way to find broad current mentions. ## `googleNewsLocale` (type: `string`): Locale parameters for Google News RSS. ## `maxItemsPerSource` (type: `integer`): Maximum feed items to inspect from each source/query. ## `sinceHours` (type: `integer`): Only keep items newer than this when a published date is available. Use 0 to disable. ## `dedupeMode` (type: `string`): How duplicate news items are removed. ## `requireQueryMatch` (type: `boolean`): If true, source-preset items must match at least one query in title/snippet/source. Google News query feeds are always kept. ## `includeSnippetHtml` (type: `boolean`): Usually false. Enable only if you want the original feed snippet markup for debugging. ## Actor input object example ```json { "queries": [ "OpenAI", "AI agents", "Apify" ], "sourcePresets": [ "tech_news", "press_releases" ], "customFeeds": [ "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "useGoogleNewsRss": true, "googleNewsLocale": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en", "maxItemsPerSource": 25, "sinceHours": 168, "dedupeMode": "url_or_title_source", "requireQueryMatch": false, "includeSnippetHtml": false } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `newsResults` (type: `string`): Deduped news mentions with query, headline, source, URL, snippet, published date, rank, and discovery timestamp. ## `summary` (type: `string`): Run-level summary including source count, rows emitted, duplicates removed, queries, presets, and source errors. ## `consoleRun` (type: `string`): Open the run in Apify Console. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "queries": [ "OpenAI", "AI agents", "Apify" ], "sourcePresets": [ "tech_news", "press_releases" ], "customFeeds": [ "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "googleNewsLocale": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("lokki/news-finder-monitor").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "queries": [ "OpenAI", "AI agents", "Apify", ], "sourcePresets": [ "tech_news", "press_releases", ], "customFeeds": ["https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml"], "googleNewsLocale": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("lokki/news-finder-monitor").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "queries": [ "OpenAI", "AI agents", "Apify" ], "sourcePresets": [ "tech_news", "press_releases" ], "customFeeds": [ "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/technology/rss.xml" ], "googleNewsLocale": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" }' | apify call lokki/news-finder-monitor --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=lokki/news-finder-monitor", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "News Finder & Monitor", "description": "Google Alerts, but structured, automatable, and API-first. Monitor companies, competitors, topics, launches, and press releases from Google News RSS, public feeds, Hacker News, and Product Hunt.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "c951Q4MVrwvRyeC8d" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/lokki~news-finder-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-lokki-news-finder-monitor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/lokki~news-finder-monitor/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-lokki-news-finder-monitor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/lokki~news-finder-monitor/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-lokki-news-finder-monitor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "queries": { "title": "News queries", "type": "array", "description": "Keywords, companies, people, products, or topics to find in news. Each query can generate a Google News RSS search if enabled.", "default": [ "artificial intelligence", "data scraping" ], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "sourcePresets": { "title": "Source presets", "type": "array", "description": "Built-in source bundles to scan. Pick none if you only want Google News RSS for your queries.", "items": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "tech_news", "world_news", "business_finance", "press_releases", "launch_startup", "science_space" ], "enumTitles": [ "Tech news", "World news", "Business + finance", "Press releases", "Launch/startup", "Science + space" ] }, "default": [ "tech_news", "press_releases", "launch_startup" ] }, "customFeeds": { "title": "Custom RSS/Atom feeds", "type": "array", "description": "Extra RSS or Atom feed URLs to scan.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "useGoogleNewsRss": { "title": "Use Google News RSS for queries", "type": "boolean", "description": "Create Google News RSS search feeds from each query. This is the easiest way to find broad current mentions.", "default": true }, "googleNewsLocale": { "title": "Google News locale", "type": "string", "description": "Locale parameters for Google News RSS.", "default": "hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" }, "maxItemsPerSource": { "title": "Max items per source", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 200, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum feed items to inspect from each source/query.", "default": 25 }, "sinceHours": { "title": "Freshness window in hours", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 8760, "type": "integer", "description": "Only keep items newer than this when a published date is available. Use 0 to disable.", "default": 168 }, "dedupeMode": { "title": "Dedupe mode", "enum": [ "url", "url_or_title_source", "title_only" ], "type": "string", "description": "How duplicate news items are removed.", "default": "url_or_title_source" }, "requireQueryMatch": { "title": "Require query match", "type": "boolean", "description": "If true, source-preset items must match at least one query in title/snippet/source. Google News query feeds are always kept.", "default": false }, "includeSnippetHtml": { "title": "Include raw snippet HTML", "type": "boolean", "description": "Usually false. Enable only if you want the original feed snippet markup for debugging.", "default": false } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```