Google Notebook Notebook
To show off some of the ways that Google Notebook can be used, I decided to go ahead and flag down a lot of Google Notebook related news and reviews and throw them into one Google Notebok. I did this so that readers of RyeBlog could have an example notebook to look at that would also help them figure out what the heck this notebook thing was all about. This notebook was originally created as an example I could use to go along with the Google Notebook review on my blog 

Google Notebook makes web research of all kinds – from planning a vacation to researching a school paper to buying a car – easier and more efficient by enabling you to clip and gather information even while you're browsing the web.

And since Google Notebook lives in your browser, you won't be left with a scattered collection of notes, Word docs, and browser bookmarks to sort through; all your web findings will be gathering into one organized, easy accessible location that you can access from any computer.

If you are using FireFox - you will need to make sure to watch for the plugin blocker - it will pop up at the top of the screen... you may have to manually tell it to accept the plugin from Google. 

How do I get started?

Easy. Just sign in to the Google Notebook homepage with your Google Accounts username and password, then download the Google Notebook browser extension (if you haven't already). As soon as you restart your browser, you should see a Google Notebook icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser window. Click on this icon to open your mini Google Notebook, where you can save all the clips of content you want.

In order for the Notebook to work properly you will have to download either the Firefox extension or the Internet Explorer extension. Both of those downloads come directly from Google.

UPDATE: Firefox 2.0 testers need to use the Firefox extension link above otherwise Google will say you are running an incompatible browser. If you use the direct link to the extension above you will be able to override the settings manually using the Nightly Tester Tools.

The fourth announcement is Google Notebook, which Marissa says will be available from the Google Labs next week (the URL google.com/notebook currently redirects to google.com/gn, which returns a file-not-found message). Notebook is a little notes window that follows you from the Google search results to other sites, allowing you to collect bits and pieces of information. You can also make public parts of Google Notebook to share it with others.

Google Notebook login page found

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:05 pm

Digg This!

Until now, visiting the future web address for Google Notebook simply gave you a 404 page that wasn't much fun to look at.  Thanks to Nate, one of the Googling Googlers, we can now see the front door for Google Notebook — unfortunately I am still unable to actually log in to the service.

 

The login page gives us an overview of the service:

Clip useful information
You can add clippings of text, images and links from web pages to your Google Notebook without ever leaving your browser window.

Organize your notes.
You can create multiple notebooks, divide them into sections, and drag-and-drop your notes to stay organized.

Get access from anywhere.
You can access your Google Notebooks from any computer by using your Google Accounts login.

Publish your notebook.
You can share your Google Notebook with the world by making it public.

And has a few examples of notebooks:

Vacation Planning
Plan out your vacation — from booking flights to finding the best resorts to creating an itinerary of activities.

General Research
Get the most relevant information on a topic to become an expert or make informed decisions.

Online Shopping
Create a wish list, comparison shop and more.

 

Googler insights into product and technology news and our culture.

Note this

5/15/2006 09:26:00 PM

Posted by Bay-Wei Chang, Senior Research Scientist

Search is all about finding the answers you need. Unfortunately, some kinds of questions--like where you should stay and what you should do on your Hawaiian vacation, or what kind of digital camera you should buy, or what the latest treatments for arthritis are--can't always be answered in one sitting, or by visiting one site.

That's why we built Google Notebook--to give you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, you can find it here.

Google Notebook and the productive environment

E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E is writing about the new Google Notebook. I will not add to the clutter. Now with Google mail, calendar, Contacts ((sort of) part of gmail) and Notepad, the only element Google have to add is Google Tasks and the ability to synchronize all these services with PDAs, cellphones and other mobile devices. With that (and their other services), Google will take over my productive environment.

But…

The lack of tagging is important: it is natural to be able to tag a piece of content to make searching easier in the future - its unclear why Google doesn’t support this proven model for describing bookmarks.

My final thought is this: Google Notebook will have some level of success just because it’s associated with Google, and built directly into search results. Like Aim Pages, I do not feel that it is a particularly inspired product, or one that I would give much of a chance if it didn’t have Google backing it up. Del.icio.us would have been a perfect acquisition for Google, right down to the user interface which is very Google-like. For whatever reason they let it go to Yahoo. I suspect that over time they’ll regret that decision.

Googler insights into product and technology news and our culture.

Note this

5/15/2006 09:26:00 PM

Posted by Bay-Wei Chang, Senior Research Scientist

Search is all about finding the answers you need. Unfortunately, some kinds of questions--like where you should stay and what you should do on your Hawaiian vacation, or what kind of digital camera you should buy, or what the latest treatments for arthritis are--can't always be answered in one sitting, or by visiting one site.

That's why we built Google Notebook--to give you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, you can find it here.

With the launch of Google Notebook I thought it would be a good idea to create a checklist of features vs. other services.

 

The Google Notebook Service

As for the the actual Google Notebook offering, it's got it's own set of problems as well:

1. Publishing: So I can publish my notes. And what's the point of that when I get a URL that looks like this: http://www.google.com/notebook/public/06758462020617548695/BDRdQSwoQ6qDM6LMh. What? I'm supposed to remember that? Or send it to someone? Aside from the fact that it looks like the most lame page ever created, I think exposing pseudo blogging features without actually providing any, is just a waste of time, effort and marketing might.
   
   
2. Usability Issues:
   
   
1. It's slow. That's what it feels like when they don't tell me what's happening in the Ajax. Show me something, some sort of progress or activity.
   
   
2. It's not attractive to look at, at all. The way it functions leaves a lot to be desired. Compare it with Google Reader for example.
   
   
3. The My notes and the other notebooks move up instead of the tab shifting down. Why create a tab bar effect in the first place?
   
   
3. Missing features
   
   
1. Search!: Google is a seach company. Whatever they do, whatever offering they launch, however money they make, they must remember this: they are a search company. And when they show messages saying "Search will be available in a few days", they're asking for it.
   
   
2. Tagging / Categorization: So I'm supposed to search, and only search for my notes in my Google Notebook. I'm not supposed to label, tag or categorize them. No fair. I completely agree with Michael on this.
   
   
3. Blog this???: Shouldn't I be able to create notes and then easily publish them to my blog on Blogger? Especially when they are services by the same company? Doesn't it make sense? I mean, c'mon guys, get your act together. Fine, you already have that store, edit and publish interface in Blogger. But I'm creating notes here. I want to publish these notes on my blog (and not on your lame URL with weird numbers and symbols).
   
   Did nobody actually think of this at all?
   
   
4. Email Integration: In published Notebooks I can email a link to whomever I want to. How? By using my offline mail client. I don't know how that makes sense to any person who uses GMail. I use Gmail. I have a Gmail account. I use the same account to login to Google Notebook. And yet, I must use (insert favorite rich email client here) to send a link from my Google Notebook as email. Sounds crazy to me.

Google Notebook - the good, the bad, and the ugly

So Google Notebook has launched. In a previous post, I wondered who needed to worry about this new foray into organizing the world's information. Based on a first test, probably no one.

Why? Because there's nothing particularly great about this tool, at least in its initial form. It's not terrible although I can't connect to my Notebook at the moment - probably because everyone on the East Coast is banging on Google's door trying to get a Notebook set up right now. It's just not great.

It is functional and will probably end up being mildly useful but I see nothing to suggest I will focus my information gathering on this tool rather than OneNote or EverNote. Mike Arrington won't be switching form del.icio.us anytime soon. Steve Rubel wants better integration with other Google services and hates the fact that Google Notebook requires a plug-in. A few readers and bloggers have pointed out that ClipMarks does everything Google Notebook does and a lot more.