I subscribe to 12 daily Google mail alerts -- one for each of the countries for which I run search engines.

They're a great way to keep track of what is happening in those countries. Certainly much cheaper than visiting all of them and more comfortable too -- no waiting for visas, no getting stuck at airports when someone decides to go on a strike...

There's only one problem. When I go on a week's holiday I return to find 84 Google alerts waiting for me. Since it's impossible to read them all, I simply delete them. Alternatively, before leaving for a holiday I go to settings and delete all the alerts and then reinstall them after I return. A great waste of time.

I could set a label and use that to delete all the alerts at one go. But I've always wondered why Google simply doesn't have a pause feature so that I can pause the alerts when I leave for an extended stay and restart them when I return.