On A Different Note
Well, Google Notebook has launched and, as it would seem with mixed reviews. Personally I am a little bit let down. I was expecting something much more robust and easy to use. The most glaringly obvious features that are missing are the ability to tag notebook items and the ability to share notebooks.
As far as tagging goes, perhaps Google wants to make people organize their data in a hierarchical format using notebooks and sections instead of tags, but as Michael Arrington over at TechCruch has pointed out its very natural anymore to want to tag things.
Sharing is also something that is majorly lacking. Sure, you can share a notebook for everyone to read but I was hoping for something more akin to Google Calendar sharing where you can delegate access to specific Google users to view and/or edit your notebooks. I was hoping that notebook would be a lot more of a collaboration tool than it is.
The two other things I find minorly annoying is that you have to have a browser extension to add pictures and links to your notebook and there is no way to manage the links in your note. I wish Google had included all the features of the extension into the main notebook interface so that you can still note things from a public computer. Also, it would have been nice to be able to modify the “main links” that are under the text of the note, right now the only way to change them is to delete them and start over.
A rumor seems to be going around that Notebook is the new del.icio.us but until the tagging and link modification features are in place I just don’t see how notebook is going to be a del.icio.us competitor.
A few other suggestions for Google would be to keep count of the notes that people read most frequently in their note book and place them higher up in the list and to re-introduce the star system to mark notes as important. Oh yeah, and spell check would be nice too!
Overall I give notebook a C+ with a lot of room for improvement. Given Google’s track record with Gmail, Talk, and Calendar I am sure there are plenty of improvements in the works, and unlike some I don’t hold half-baked products against Google, I would rather have them in my hands sooner and see improvements than to wait an extra year for a “complete” product.
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