How to monitor query results in Monco

In this post we explain how you can use Monco to set up an RSS channel and get instant notifications about new occurrences of a particular word, phrase or grammatical pattern. You can receive such updates on a mobile or desktop device using your favourite RSS reader software.

Here is how you can do it:

1. First, define your query. For example, you might be interested in new instances of an idiomatic phrase such as 'by dint of' you could: run this query. This query may return a result set similar to the one shown below:



2. In the top right corner of the results page, you can see an orange RSS icon. If you click/tap on this icon, on most browsers (e.g. Chrome, Firefox) you will get an automatically generated page with the XML version of a continuously updated RSS channel for your query.
3. Copy the link from the address bar of your browser and use it in your favourite RSS reader. There are plenty of web pages recommending RSS readers for different platforms, e.g.:
   a) Windows
   b) MacOSX
   c) Android
   d) iPhone/ iPad

One of the easiest ways to keep up to date with RSS feeds is to use your e-mail client such as Windows Live Mail as a reader as described here.

The figure below shows how the results of your monitor queries may look like in your RSS reader (such as Vienna). In the main panel, there is a list of daily frequencies of the phrase 'by dint of'. Each of these items is a direct link to the exact Monco page showing these concordances. Your RSS reader will periodically refresh your subscriptions and check for new items.


And finally, if you click on one of those daily frequency links, you will see a concordance of new usages similar to the one below:

Incidentally, there was recently a discussion about the possibility of the phrase 'flimsy + claim|claims' being a new collocation. We've set up this RSS feed to keep track of new occurrences of this phrase.