Bingo.  ;) 

A 'hot deal' forum I frequent uses them, which is godsend for people without a lot of idle time to troll forum post after forum post searching for something.  All the features I was looking for (the leaderboard you created in your Active forums, the word filter for replacing URLS posted by users with my affiliate URL, and these notifications) are done in off-the-shelf php forums, so thought they would keep the DNN forums competitive.

Yea, instant notifications would be huge (also huge time and bandwidth saver) and the possibilities endless. I have about 50 keywords queued up and receive an email the moment a deal on, say, a Weber Performer (I feel dirty for switching to gas) or a 22" monitor or another 500GB external firewire drive or or or or or....  :) I don't even visit the forums anymore until one of my triggers spring.  :)