I just played around with Google Labs’ latest release: Notebook. I was a little suprised that I was able to instantly start using it since most of Google’s new releases fill up quickly and you have to wait for an invitation e-mail.
I like what I see. Mike Arrington at Techcrunch sees Notebook as “a direct Del.icio.us competitor.” I disagree. I see Notebook more as something that will compete with 37Signals’ Backpack.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Backpack. But it’s not totally free. Sure, you can have three pages or whatever it is for free, but Google allows, as far as I can tell, unlimited pages as well as the ability to add images, a feature that the free version of Backpack does not.
I also like the feature that allows you to instantly add “clippings” from pages you’re surfing to your notebook via a browser extension. Google Notebook also features awesome and easy drag and drop AJAX.
I can see how you could use something like this as a del.icio.us type app, but I don’t think that that is it’s best use. It’s better used as an organizational type service, similar to Backpack.
I hate to bail on the little guy for Google, but when the price is right, you gotta do what you gotta do.
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technorati tags: notebook, google, googlenotebook, googlelabs, backpack
I’m loving Google Notebook. I got the Firefox extension for it and it’s working great.
Comment by wom — 05.16.06 @ 4:48 pm
Hogg
I agree, the comparison with Backpack is what came to mind for me. I also thought of Onfolio, which is a software program you install on your computer.
Makes me wonder how many companies Google may push into it. IT seems almost anything in the web 2.0 space has a good chance of having the big G come in on its turf.
The firefox and ie extension is one of the killer aspects for its ease of use, IMHO
posted some stuff about it here: http://seog.net/9
Comment by Michael @ SEOG — 05.16.06 @ 6:05 pm