A method for recognizing and acting upon dynamic data in a computer network such as the Internet. The method begins by having the user (at a machine connected to the computer network) define at least one data source that he or she is interested in monitoring. The data source includes information identifying a location (i.e. a URL) of the data object to be monitored, together with recognition criteria which determines whether the data source is valid. For each data source, the user may then define a set of one or more action criteria, wherein each action criteria has a given polling interval and includes information identifying a sensitivity criteria and an action to be taken if the sensitivity criteria for the data source is met. The inventive process retrieves one or more data sources from the Internet, examines the data sources according to the sensitivity criteria, and triggers actions if any of the sensitivity criteria are met.