Living in the Clouds – Google Notebook

This week’s App in the Living in the Clouds series is Google Notebook, a note taking application similar to Post-It notes in the traditional paper based world. The corresponding applications in the desktop world includes Microsoft’s OneNote and Open Source Tomboy app. Google Notebook can be used in wide variety of ways. It can be used to record small chunks of text from a webpage, it can be used to bookmark, it can be used to file important notes from your research, it can be used to jot down your thoughts, it can be used to capture important quotes, etc..

Google Notebook allows users to add multiple notebooks with multiple notes in each notebook. Plus, the users can add Labels to organize their information further. Google offers a browser extension for the Notebook and it can be used to add notes from any website in the internet. This extension also helps users access their information without visiting the Google Notebook site. With this extension, adding text or image to a notebook is just a click away.

As it is customary in this series, let us now check out the Pros and Cons of this application.

Pros:

• The close integration with the browser through an extension makes the note taking process a breeze.
• Google’s powerful search algorithm makes it easy to find any information filed in any notebooks.
• Ability to export the notes to Google Docs, HTML or Atom makes the migration process easier.
• Ability to publish and share notebooks makes collaboration easier.

Cons:

• Lack of support for notes other than text and image based ones. I would like to add audio or video notes but Google Notebook doesn’t support it.
• Not impressed with their Iphone App at all.
• Absence of an application ecosystem to synchronize Google Notebook with some of the desktop applications.

We usually don’t write about Zoho products in this space as they are our sponsors. However, I couldn’t resist myself from mentioning Zoho Notebook while talking about the note taking app. Instead of digging deep into Zoho Notebook, I will just stop with couple of sentences. Zoho Notebook is a pretty neat note taking app in the SaaS space. In a way, it is even better compared to Microsoft Onenote from the desktop world.

Previous Articles in this Series:

• Living in the Clouds
• Living in the Clouds – Gmail
• Living in the Clouds – Google Calendar
• Living in the Clouds – Remember The Milk
• Living in the Clouds – Gmail Contacts