Google is abandoning Google Notebook:

http://googlenotebookblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/stopping-development-on-google-notebook.html

I've been using Google Notebook for a while to store Web snippets. I didn't put anything really important to me in there, and I can dump what I have to HTML or Google Docs, but it's annoying nonetheless.

Very annoying. Like you, I didn't put anything important there. But project management is a gap in the Google PIM plan (assuming there is a plan) and I'm wondering how they are going to fill it.

Generally speaking, I always send relevant pages to gmail and file it there (very easy if you have the Google toolbar - a simple right click). But still, very annoying.

Tom S.

(I tried to post earlier -- I hope my post doesn't appear twice.)

Yup, definitely annoying to say the least. Let's hope Gmail doesn't bite the dust ;)

Alternative online note-taking applications I'm considering:

- Evernote: http://evernote.com/
- UberNote: http://www.ubernote.com/webnote/pages/default.aspx
- Zoho Notebook: http://notebook.zoho.com/

...Or ditch the online thing entirely and rely solely on my laptop and a USB stick.

Michal

Two comments:

#1 To me, Google Notebook's demise _isn't_ reason enough not to trust the cloud (though there may be other valid ones). We all have seen the end of development of many programs we used to rely upon, but that was no reason to stop using software altogether. As far as I can tell, all material entered into GN will remain accessible, but there will be no new features added. What I would suggest is that this case (as many others) is a good reason not to rely on 'free' services alone.

#2 I hadn't heard of UberNote, but to me it looks like a complete EverNote clone, down to the elephant logo! I suspect that somebody from EN's developing team left and started their own spin-off business. I would also note though that UN data is only accessible via the web. EN, in contrast, started out as an offline program and is now cross-platform and web-aware. Even if EN's servers close down, data in one's computer remains accessible.

Alexander

Also, there is the new Microsoft Thumbtack http://tinyurl.com/9mdad5

I wonder if this Thumbtack is a contributing fator to deciding not to continue developing Notebook.

On the other hand, I wonder if Google made its decision because it intends to announce or launch an alternative in the near future/

Daly

IMO the headline is a little extreme -- it's not shuttered at all: "we'll continue to maintain service for those of you who've already signed up."

Still, it's definitely a wake-up call for cloudies.

Oh, and there's this little thing called airplane travel. Some of us like access to our notes whenever we need them...

Yes, but they're not accepting new users, which to me says that they will eventually be shutting it down completely. When you close up an old house, you close the shutters, but you don't tear the house down right away.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Two comments:

#1 To me, Google Notebook's demise _isn't_ reason enough not to trust
the cloud (though there may be other valid ones). We all have seen the end of
development of many programs we used to rely upon, but that was no reason to stop using
software altogether. As far as I can tell, all material entered into GN will remain
accessible, but there will be no new features added. What I would suggest is that this
case (as many others) is a good reason not to rely on 'free' services alone.

This is true. Two thoughts to add to yours:

A) The application needed improvement in order to reach its full potential. I actually started using it (again, not for anything important) because I expected it to eventually be something superior. In truth, it looked to me like it could possibly be a free, online One Note. It obviously will never get there now.

B) What made this application so convenient for many of us was the Firefox plugin that interfaced with it. This will also not be updated. When Firefox went from v. 2 to v. 3, it broke many of the plugins, including this one. When it goes from v. 3 to v. 4, I think we can expect the same, probably with no fix this time.

Tom S.

David Dunham wrote:

Oh, and there's this little thing called
airplane travel. Some of us like access to our notes whenever we need them...

Syncing with Google Gears should really help with this. It hadn't been made compatible with GN but it also has a lot of potential for us "cloudies". :)

Tom S.

Evernote has been quick to jump on the Google replacement bandwagon, providing an import route:
http://blog.evernote.com/2009/01/22/google-notebook-import-2/

This is actually a reason that you _can_ trust the cloud: if there's a sufficient interest for an obsolete product, somebody else will probably provide an alternative. I have seen this happen in social networking sites and online storage spaces, with alternatives even being promoted on the original website.

alx