Google Notebook keeping your thoughts organized.

It is certainly hard to keep track of all the good and useful software readily available out there, and even more challenging to try them out as they are launched. Recently I came upon an article on Google Notebook, and since I am already a user of many of the Google applications like the Gmail, Calendar, Google Maps, etc, I decided to check out Google Notebook. Yes, I know I am a little behind time, as you might want to point out that Google Notebook has already been out for nearly two years. As I have mentioned in the beginning of this article, that it isn't an easy feat to try every good software that comes out. At least one good thing for a late comer like myself, by now they would have improved Google Notebook to a better level than when it was initially launched.

One thing I do alot is jotting down notes, especially ideas that come to my mind out of the blue. Often such ideas and thoughts go away as sudden as they came. So I need to get them down somewhere before they do. And I approached Google Notebook basically with this need in mind. And because I work on different computers all the time, I need something that would not be limited by this kind of work arrangement. And Google Notebook certainly offers me this flexibility. Take for example, I write articles for Paradigm52 whenever the ideas come to mind. I generally start writing parts of it and adjourn it till a later more conducive time to finish the article that I began. More often than not, I began the article on one computer and later finished it on another. This is where I find Google Notebook a great help for what I want to do. And believe it or not, I am actually writing this piece on Google Notebook and will publish it on Paradigm52 when it is completed. It might be a day or two before it is completed. So whenever I find the time to add on to this article, it is really convenient be able to pull up my article on any computer (that is connected to the Internet) and continue writing.

Of course the Notebook comes with the same search capability as the Gmail. From within Google Notebook, you can search either the Web or just within your notes. That makes finding things easy especially when your notebook starts to have more and more notes. Or you can organize your notes using the Labels feature. Labeling would not be a new thing for you if you are regular Gmail user. For those non Gmail users, you basically assign a label to to each of your notes. And when you want to see only notes of a specific label,just click the label name from the Label list, This makes it convenient to organize your notes.

Even though Google Notebook is not a dedicated collaboration tool, it does offer some features in this category. You can choose to share a notebook with others with just a few simple clicks and specifying of email addresses. Only one small limitation though, the other party must also have a Gmail account in order to participate in the collaboration. If the person doesn't, Google will offer to help the person sign up an account. Once you share the notebook, everyone in the list will have the rights to make changes to the notes in the notebook. Very easy to use and an easy way to collaborate in a simple manner.

If you have the Google Notebook plugin installed, say for your Firefox, you can paste links to the web page that you are looking at, into your notebook with a few simple clicks. Just right click the page and select Note this. This will paste the link on to a new note with the webpage title as your note title. Serves as a way to save bookmarks. Likewise you can copy text and images to your notebook, by highlighting what you wish to save and right click to select Note this. You will find the text or the image pasted on a new note in the current notebook that you are working on.

In conclusion, I would say that Google Notebook works well as a simple and easy to use notebook. Its features are basically what one would expect to find in a notebook usage. Specifically it offers a way to organize your notes, search them and a simple way to collaborate with others. Even though there are other software available that offers more complex features, they are also harder to learn. And for me, Google Notebook shines in its ease of usage. Afterall it is free and the ability to sign on with a single Google account caters to my taste.