Maybe I need to figure out how this PC thingy works.
My semi-automated search engine is FR.
You can go to Google and have it email you news and web alerts. http://www.google.com/alerts
For example if your spouse is a famous author, or you work for an elected official, you can put that name in as one of the search terms and whenever that name pops up on the Internet somewhere, Google will alert you. (timeliness of the alerts varies depending on the site)