Keyword Monitoring

Custom keyword alerts with real-time matching and automatic color coding

World Monitor lets you create custom keyword alerts that highlight matching headlines across all RSS feeds. This is useful for tracking specific entities, events, or topics that matter to your intelligence workflow.

Creating a Keyword Monitor

1. Open the Keyword Monitors panel

   Located in the left sidebar or main dashboard grid.

2. Click 'Add Monitor'

   A text input appears for entering keywords.

3. Enter keywords (comma-separated for multiple)

   nuclear, uranium, enrichment
   

   Each keyword is treated as a separate monitor but can be grouped visually.

4. Save the monitor

   The keyword is automatically color-coded from a 10-color palette and begins matching immediately.

Word-Boundary Matching

Keyword monitors use word-boundary regex matching to prevent false positives:

✅ Correct Matches

Keyword: ai

• ✅ “New AI model released”
• ✅ “Generative AI revolution”
• ✅ “AI startup funding”

❌ Rejected Matches

Keyword: ai

• ❌ “New train derailment” (ai is inside “train”)
• ❌ “Email security update” (ai is inside “email”)
• ❌ “Mountain rescue operation”

This ensures “ai” only matches when it’s a standalone word, not part of another word.

Keyword matching is case-insensitive — “Nuclear” matches “nuclear”, “NUCLEAR”, and “NuClEaR”.

Search Scope

Keyword monitors search across:

1. Headline titles (primary match)
2. Article descriptions (secondary match)

Matches in titles are weighted higher than matches in descriptions when calculating relevance scores.

Real-Time Match Counts

Each monitor displays a live match count badge:

🟢 nuclear (12)
🔵 sanctions (7)
🟠 cyberattack (3)

Counts update in real-time as new headlines arrive from RSS feeds.

Multi-Keyword Support

You can enter multiple keywords separated by commas:

iran, iranian, tehran, irgc

All four keywords will:

• Share the same color
• Be grouped under a single monitor
• Show a combined match count

Avoid overly broad keywords like “the”, “and”, “is” — they’ll match almost every headline and clutter the UI.

Color Coding

Monitors are automatically assigned colors from a 10-color palette:

Auto-Assignment

Colors are assigned in rotation as you create monitors:

1. Green
2. Blue
3. Orange
4. Purple
5. Pink
6. Teal
7. Red
8. Yellow
9. Indigo
10. Gray

After 10 monitors, colors repeat.

Visual Highlighting

Matching headlines are highlighted with a colored left border and badge in the news panel.

This makes it easy to scan hundreds of headlines and instantly spot matches.

Managing Monitors

Editing a Monitor

1. Click the Edit icon next to the monitor
2. Modify the keyword(s)
3. Save — matches update immediately

Deleting a Monitor

1. Click the Delete icon (trash can)
2. Confirm deletion
3. All highlights for this keyword are removed from the news panel

Pausing a Monitor

Currently, monitors cannot be paused — they’re always active. To temporarily disable a monitor, delete it and recreate later.

Feature request: Pause/resume toggle is planned for a future release.

Use Cases

Entity Tracking

Track specific organizations, people, or countries:

hezbollah, hamas, houthis
xi jinping, putin, biden
israel, palestine, gaza

Event Monitoring

Track ongoing events or crises:

earthquake, tsunami, hurricane
coup, revolution, protest
cyberattack, ransomware, breach

Technology & Finance

Track industry-specific terms:

bitcoin, ethereum, crypto
ai, llm, machine learning
ipo, acquisition, funding

Threat Intelligence

Track security indicators:

apt28, apt29, lazarus
cve, vulnerability, exploit
malware, trojan, phishing

Integration with Trending Keywords

Keyword monitors complement the Trending Keywords panel, which uses spike detection to automatically surface surging terms:

Feature	Keyword Monitors	Trending Keywords
Setup	Manual (you define)	Automatic (AI-detected)
Match logic	Exact word-boundary match	Statistical spike (2h vs 7d baseline)
Persistence	Permanent until deleted	Temporary (spikes fade)
Color coding	Auto-assigned from palette	Severity-based (red/orange/yellow)

If you notice a term in Trending Keywords that you want to track permanently, create a Keyword Monitor for it.

Performance Considerations

Keyword matching is optimized for real-time performance:

• Client-side regex — All matching happens in the browser, no server round-trips
• Incremental updates — Only new headlines are scanned as they arrive
• Virtual scrolling — News panels with 15+ items use virtual lists to minimize DOM overhead

Recommended limits:

• ≤ 20 active monitors (10 colors × 2 rounds)
• ≤ 10 keywords per monitor
• Avoid regex special characters (use plain text)

Persistence

Keyword monitors are stored in localStorage and persist across sessions:

• ✅ Survive browser restarts
• ✅ Survive page reloads
• ❌ Do not sync across devices (device-local only)

Clearing browser cache will delete your keyword monitors. Export your keyword list to a text file before clearing cache.

Troubleshooting

Monitor not matching expected headlines

Check for:

1. Spelling — “nucler” won’t match “nuclear”
2. Word boundaries — “ai” won’t match “train”
3. Plurals — “sanction” won’t match “sanctions” (add both: sanction, sanctions)
4. Abbreviations — Add both full and short forms: cve, common vulnerabilities

Too many matches (noisy)

Your keyword is too broad. Refine it:

• Instead of war, use war, conflict zone, ceasefire
• Instead of ai, use artificial intelligence, ai model, llm
• Add qualifiers: russia ukraine war instead of just war

Match count shows 0 but I see matches

The headline may contain your keyword in a way that doesn’t trigger word-boundary matching:

• Check if it’s inside another word (e.g., “ai” in “email”)
• Try adding the full phrase: email security instead of email

Monitor disappeared after reload

This indicates localStorage was cleared. Possible causes:

• Browser privacy mode (Incognito/Private Browsing)
• Cache clearing extension
• Manual cache clear

Solution: Recreate the monitor or check if your browser is in private mode.

Related Features

• Signal Intelligence — Understanding automated threat signals
• World Brief — AI-generated global summaries
• Country Analysis — Country-specific intelligence briefs