Google Notebook First Look

Google Notebook is starting to go live as of this writing. Thanks to ZDNet for the link to the login page. Here's an initial look. The overview page can be found here.

Google Notebook, the web copy says, makes it easy to collect web research of all kinds – from planning a vacation to researching a school paper to buying a car. You simply clip and gather information even while you're browsing the web. All your notes belong to Google. To clip information you need to use the mini Google Notebook. This unfortunately requires a browser extension. Hmm, why not integrate this into the Google Toolbar?

Once your notes are in Google Notebook you can make them publicly available. Then all of these public notes can be searched from this search page. According to the FAQ it takes two days for your notebooks to get indexed.

The Google Notebook interface itself is very straightforward. You create a notebook. Then each notebook can feature rich text notes. You then have the option to print or share notebooks. All of your notebooks are naturally searchable.

Google Notebook is straightforward and easy to use but I am disappointed in it. I don't like that the mini Google Notebook requires a browser plug-in. I don't see why it can't work the same way Google Talk works inside Gmail. This makes Google Notebook virtually useless when I am using someone else's computer.

As Google grows I have been noticing that they are producing less winners. Google Trends, for example, is a great tool. But others like this one and Google Co-op are duds from the get-go.

Here are some screens I took of Google Notebook ...

Technorati Tags: Google+Notebook, Google

Comments

[quirkyalone]

I tend to think this one is a winner. I virtually never use someone else's computer, so I don't mind it is implemented as aFirefox plugin.

Tagging and "blog this" features would be desirable, I'd say. Anyway, it's still not clear for me, if Notepad will prove usefull to me, especially in the relation to del.icio.us. I may be using both in the future, or just one of them. Can't tell now.

[hoberion]

it doesnt require a plugin, you can still view/edit the notes without the plugin

[Mike Abundo]

I use Google Desktop's Scratch Pad a lot -- and I'm a former Microsoft OneNote fan.

Google should integrate Notebook into Desktop.

[Douglass Davidoff]

Steve, I'm going to give Google Notebook a try. Call me lame, but I've never really gotten into del.icio.us. The Google Notebook interface looks much easier. And their FAQ says that, yes, you can read your notebook from any computer.

[Rajiv Vyas]

I think this is a winner. I rarely (less than 2% of my Web surfing time) use someone else's computer, so the plugin is fine.

I like the simplicity and even think the integration with Google (you can add a search term to your notes) directly. Not sure if you noticed this.

Yes, Google could add some extra features that would make it better.

Someone else pointed out that he/she is not sure what this means for Google Bookmarks. I think the two are completely seperate.

BTW, I also think that Google Co-op is actually great and am surprised that no one thought of it before.

[Graywolf]

While this program has some major privacy implications and serious copyright concerns I think it's pretty useful. I did a review of it today and see how it could be useful

http://www.wolf-howl.com/?p=378

[Prashanth]

I guess the reason for not integrating tool bar with Notebook is because toolbar is a supported product where as notebook is a lab product. But I assume it will be supported in future.

And about your next question
"I don't see why it can't work the same way Google Talk works inside Gmail."
Suppose Google implements same way as Gmail Chat, you cannot use quick notepad feature (now u can just click the status bar "Open Notebook" for adding any web page) as u need to be inside Google Notebook to implement that feature u requested.

The only solution I see is that Google supports NoteBook and make it graduate from lab and then integrate into toolbar.

[Steve]

We've had a product that does what Notebook does and quite a bit more, called PreFound PFfinder out with our service since 1/17/06 and a product available that did similar things since 2001 called HydraLinks. And, PFfinder has tagging technology associated with it that allows for automated and user-generated tags. Onfolio and Pluck also have similiar offerings. It's just that when Google introduces something, it gets a lot of virtual and actual ink. It'll be interesting to see how it works out.

[Kir]

take a look this:

http://www.notefish.com

[wom]

I'm loving Google Notebook. I'm using the Firefox extension available with it and it's awesome.

[Funana]

10 Facts why you should use Clipmarks instead of GNote

Have you ever tried Clipmarks?
If you thought that the GNotes concept sounds nice, Clipmarks is the one you should use!

Let's compare GNote to Clipmarks:

Here is what I see that Google's new product does:

1) Creates a bookmark to the page that you were on when you did the notebook thing.

2) Takes whatever text you had highlighted at the time and makes that sorf of "your notes" about that page that is now bookmarked in their system.

3) Allows you then to go in and edit those notes to add your own text, or whatever. With a little html-like editor.

4) Allows you then to go in and look at all your notebook items in the typical Google ugly fashion.

5) No Tagging

6) No Community

Meanwhile, the Clipmarks featureset is completely different:

1) Allows you to clip many pieces from one site or page, or several sites or pages and make them together into ONE NEW PAGE.

2) Allows you to tag these entries for later search retrieval, sharing, networking, etc. Tagclouds help you to find interesting tags easily.

3) Allows you to then quickly and easily send those clippings into a set of "bookmarking" sites like Delicious, etc.

4) Provides an absolutely beautiful, fast, fabulous in every way UI to go and look at your clippings, search them, etc.

5) Provides a great commenting and popping system to foster actual social interaction around your clippings.

6) Provides a way to subscribe to an RSS feed for a tag or a person.

7) Provides a way to make Clips public or private.

8) Lets you subscribe to other Clipmarkers ("Follow"), to have a quick access to their Clipmarks.

9) Provides a print function that really rocks and let you print out pages which originaly can't be printed well because of design errors. Due to the fact that you can clip content from different or multiple pages in one Clipmark, printing was never been easier.

10) All of this is completely integrated into your browser.

Go to http://clipmarks.com and test it! You will love it!

[John]

I thought GNote's concept is nice, but less than what I ideally want. Checked out Clipmarks, but it's still lacking in some areas.

If you feel the same way, then really should check out Diigo, which I think it’s a lot more to offer than most of the players out there. I’ve been using it, and just love it. Just wish more people would discover it.

I thought it nicely combines the features of other services

-- clippings (as google notebook)
-- Tagging ( as delicious)
-- caching and full-text search (as furl)

and add these unique features:

-- Highlighting ( see important clippings on the original page highlighted in context)
-- sticky notes (annotation right on the page)

It’s still in beta and requires an invite. But just ask nicely, I got mine in one day. If you need one, I may have some extra to give out.

[pat]

I really like Notebook. So far I haven't downloaded the plugin on my work computer. From work, I'm using the web interface and I use the mini notebook at home for now.

I don't even consider this to be the same thing as del.icio.us for my purposes. I use this for notes and specific web references that I want to act on or blog about, including things I want to keep private for the moment. Del.icio.us, I use for anything interesting at all.

[Rita Desai]

I love love love Google notebooks. I especially adore the way it can just pop up mini-sized in the corner while I'm in Wikipedia or doing any kind of research. I don't have to hop between two different browsers. That is awesome. I have to agree with the others, this one is definitely another winner for Google.

[Ike]

It took a few months to piggyback GChat off of GTalk.

I can see where GNote can eventually build into more.

[Anupam Jain]

I appreciate the concept. Some suggestions/ideas about the notebook:

http://anupamj.blogspot.com/2006/09/notepad-for-web.html

[Austin]

Google notebooks is how I came across your site.

[asd]

seems like some of these people work for clipmarks or w/e and are trying to persuade people to use their software ^^

i haven't tried any of them yet, i've heard of onenote by ms, and i'm interested in gnote. why would i possibly want to have an "online community to share my notebook with? hm?" it would be nice to have that option, but that's not the primary purpose. in any case, you could easily share your notebook in a separate app.

the problem with ppl nowadays, particular new kids who grew up when pc's already hit 1.5 mhz, they only look for flashy features and graphics. i lack patience and i just want something professional: sleek, fast, and efficient.

one of the first things my comp programming teacher lectured on was that ppl nowadays, instead of making their code & app efficient and fast, are relying on pc power. like aim, i don't want picture wallpapers of dancing duckies with huge splash animated smileys. i'd rather be able to run several apps simultaneously and not have to buy more ram or have a 3.0 ghz processor

[asd]

seems like some of these people work for clipmarks or w/e and are trying to persuade people to use their software ^^

i haven't tried any of them yet, i've heard of onenote by ms, and i'm interested in gnote. why would i possibly want to have an "online community to share my notebook with? hm?" it would be nice to have that option, but that's not the primary purpose. in any case, you could easily share your notebook in a separate app.

the problem with ppl nowadays, particular new kids who grew up when pc's already hit 1.5 mhz, they only look for flashy features and graphics. i lack patience and i just want something professional: sleek, fast, and efficient.

one of the first things my comp programming teacher lectured on was that ppl nowadays, instead of making their code & app efficient and fast, are relying on pc power. like aim, i don't want picture wallpapers of dancing duckies with huge splash animated smileys. i'd rather be able to run several apps simultaneously and not have to buy more ram or have a 3.0 ghz processor