Google Notebooks and Bookmarks

I really like Microsoft OneNote. It only stands to reason then that I would love the online Google Notebook application. Of course I do!… What’s not to love?! Nearly everyone that I know who has used the application loves it. If didn’t have a chance to add the application before it went away… you really missed out on an incredible productivity and organization booster…

Unfortunately, on January 14 of this year, Google pulled further development of it’s Notebook application stating that those using the application could continue, but that there would be no further enhancements and support for the browser extensions, which had concluded with the Google Toolbar 5.0 release http://googlenotebookblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/stopping-development-on-google-notebook.html). That wasn’t too bad by itself, but with the release of IE8… the ability to use the Browser Extension Object in the 5.0 toolbar that allowed me to right click and send material from my web browser directly to one of my Google Notebooks also went away… the 5.0 Toolbar won’t run under IE8! This was a terrible setback! I researched my options… but there really weren’t any good replacements that met my needs. I tried Zoho and Delicious as potential substitutes but nothing worked for me quite the way that I wanted. I am certain there are many people out there that find themselves in a similar situation and are absolutely beside themselves with dismay over why Google would kill such a great application. Others, who felt as I did even started a petition to bring Google Notebooks back (http://www.petitiononline.com/gnoteb/petition.html) I hope they are successful!

For those of you that were lucky enough to add the Notebook application but still miss the convenience and formatting of the context menu… here is what I do now… send the text to your Google Bookmarks application… then go to your Google Notebooks… the Bookmarks will listed as another Notebook (Yeah!!) and you can then move items from your Bookmarks into an appropriate Notebook. It takes an extra step, but it works good enough to get what I need done. Realizing that Bookmarks were just a scaled down version of Notebook… it really does boggle the mind as to why it went away…

This hasn’t been too bad, but it does demonstrates one of the worst fears of customers in relying upon “Software As A Service”… If a vendor changes their business model (or vanishes entirely) they can leave you high and dry. If the application is mission critical… they could have a very significant impact on your profits and even your survival.