I had some Google alerts set up to keep track of an industry I am entering but they cluttered up my RSS reader and became a chore. I'm thinking about using something like Rivalmap instead.
Backtype alerts would be good for comments which is almost as important as blog posts.
I don't use RSS...I just have Google Alerts email me a summary depending on the importance (i.e. as it happens for important stuff, daily/weekly for not so important stuff).
Great work guys.