Google Notebook

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Posted by Chris Murtland
May 16, 2006 at 06:13 PM

http://www.google.com/notebook/

People who like clipping stuff from the web will want to check this out. There is a Firefox extension that gives you access to the notebook from within Firefox.

In addition to clipping, you can also just add notes that you type in.

I think the potentially cool thing about this is you have access to all the stuff you’ve clipped from anywhere you can get to a browser and log in to your Google account.

Chris

Posted by Derek Cornish
Jul 14, 2006 at 05:16 PM

Chris -

Sorry for the late response…

I’m just not sure whether I want Google to have access to my private notes in this way. I feel the same about Gmail. I may be paranoid, but I don’t trust any guarantees about privacy they may give.

Of course, just by using Google one’s search activities are logged throughout the internet, and all ISPs presumably keep tabs on one’s emailing. Still, why make it even easier for big brother to stick his nose in?

What do others think?

Derek

Posted by Chris Murtland
Jul 14, 2006 at 05:32 PM

Derek,

I pretty much feel the same way. While I use Gmail for lists and some personal mail, I wouldn’t want to entrust my real work email to Google. Also, with Google Notebook, I would only clip general web information and don’t see myself adding in many personal notes of my own. While I think web-based tools have a lot of promise in that they can be accessed from multiple locations without worrying about file synchronizing, when it comes to truly personal information it just seems better (at this point) to have that stored in local software. On the other hand, we do online banking and are entrusting *really* sensitive data to our financial institutions. I’m sure that in the future someone will come up with a web-based solution that offers full encryption of the data (not just the SSL connection in the browser) as well as robust privacy policies that don’t allow the provider or any third parties to access your data in any event.

There’s also the issue of speed and availability. While some web apps have gotten pretty snappy, they still aren’t as fast as a local application. And in the rare cases when an internet connection or the provider’s site goes down, do you really want to be divorced from all your personal information?

I think the trend is in the direction of web apps and online storage, though. I belive there may be a tipping point in the future where having applications and storage online will be safer and cheaper than having it locally. A lot of business applications are already like this; I just don’t think it’s trickled down to the level of individual users yet.

Chris

Posted by Mike Smith
Jul 15, 2006 at 02:47 PM

I use Google Notebook to store snippets to access at work (IE) and home (Firefox). I find the IE plugin slow and removed it. The Firefox plugin is faster. On IE and Firefox I find the plugin interface a clumsy and prefer full screen mode in a browser window (IE) or tab (Firefox).

Interface:

The outline has two levels: Section Headings, and Notes. You might consider it three levels if you include Notebook as a level. Drag and drop to move or reorder headings or notes works fine. Moving between Notebooks is supported but it’s a blind drop (destination seems to be the last Note in the last Section Heading). Sorting entries is unsupported. Sometimes I inadvertently enter Edit mode when trying to expand (view) an entry. Switching between Edit and View modes is more annoying in IE because it’s slower than Firefox.

Because of the two level outline level limitation, Google Notebook is for small projects only.

..Mike Smith . Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Posted by Derek Cornish
Jul 15, 2006 at 04:33 PM

Chris,

> I think the trend is in the direction of web apps and online storage, though. I belive there may be a tipping point in the future where having applications and storage online will be safer and cheaper than having it locally.

There’s probably more money to be made, too, in encouraging online access to software and storage. So it’s back to dumb terminals, and being at the mercy of remote and authoritarian IT providers. I seem to remember having been there before - in the 1970-80s. Just joking, of course :-)

Derek

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