I have been using Google Notebook for roughly the last 18 months to clip and save all kinds of information that I find on the web. Today, all of the major tech blogs reported that Google is eliminating some of their services. One of the services that slated to be phased out is Google Notebook. I had some conversations with other teachers on Twitter about using other online notebook programs. It seems that some people will give Zoho Notebook a try. In response to those conversations I made a short screencast demonstrating how to move content from Google Notebook to Zoho Notebook, you can see that screencast here.
I have always like Google Notebook for its Firefox add-on that allows me to clip a website's url and add notes to my clipping without having to open a new tab or window. In addition to the Zoho Notebook add-on, the Drop.io Firefox add-on has the potential to replace Google Notebook as my prefered bookmarking and notetaking tool. This afternoon I installed the Drop.io add-on which allows me bookmark and write notes directly into one of my Drop.io drops by simply clicking a little "+ drop.io" icon my browser toolbar. In just a couple of hours of using the Drop.io add-on I can safely say that I do prefer it over the Zoho add-on.
Mozilla has a library containing 278 Firefox add-ons designed for bookmarking websites in one way or another. Some of add-ons in the library, like the Delicious add-on, I have used in the past others I have never heard of before. Over the next few days I'll be trying out a bunch of the bookmarking add-ons in the Mozilla library and I'll let you know which ones I like.
What is your favorite bookmarking and notetaking tool?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Choosing a Google Notebook Replacement
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12 comments:
UberNote is a good replacement. We are also working on an importer as we speak.
I teach at Yale and have been following your blog for some time.
I think diigo is by far the best, and I use it often with students. You will like the ability to create groups, highlight, bookmark, leave public or private comments, take notes, and then (one of my favorite functions) expand all the comments of highlights and notes on one page (great for students). You can also create webslides of bookmarked pages, to guide students through a number of different sites or have them make the webslides themselves as an assignment or research project (a function that is similar to Trailfire).
The applications for education are endless, and I cannot praise the service enough.
I've tried many, and it's the best of the bunch.
I still, however, do double bookmark to delicious: I can't imagine giving up the functionality of google search when used in conjunction with Webmynd and delicious.
OK, but when Google Notebook goes completely offline shortly, none of the URLs will work anymore, right? So what you will have in Zoho is a page that shows an error message, I think, and not the info that was previously there.
I've been trying to export my notebooks to Google Docs for months now, and I get a 500 error every time. So I'm having to copy and paste each note individually to a new odt document, which takes a while since these are notes on research I have done, not links. If this shortcut to Zoho works, I will be thrilled, but I'm a little skeptical.
Diigo vs Google Notebook ~ a great (better?) alternative: http://tinyurl.com/776ku2
Diigo is working on a Google Notebook importer, so that you can move to Diigo with a few clicks very soon.
Of course, for educators, please make sure you check out the Diigo educator account: www.diigo.com/education
And Diigo ~ 21st Century Tool for Research, Reading and Collaboration: http://tinyurl.com/93u5be
I recently switched to Evernote. No regrets so far. Firefox add-on is available.
While I use Google products a lot, I never got around to using Google notebook. Didn't use Zoho either. But I absolutely love what I can do with Evernote - much more flexible and so damned good to use with my iPhone as well. Evernote does all my work for me, which makes my busy school day all that much easier as a result.
Well this is certainly not good news for me. I have been using this handy little application and the Firefox extension for quite a while now. I already have an Evernote account, but haven't really used it because I had Google Notebook. I suppose I will give that a second close look as well as some of the other available apps.
I'd only been using Diigo and Delicious, but I am thrilled that you shared that link to the Firefox add-ons. Already going with 'Read Later' and it's perfect! I'm about to set up my 'Morning Coffee'- opens all of your daily-use sites with one click.
One vote for Diigo.
Although I'm still learning all it's uses, I think Evernote is going to become my all-in-one note-taking application. I was a Delicious devotee but as I discover Evernote I'm using Delicious less and less. Evernote just won the Crunchies award for best mobile startup, and I can see why. I've written about using it as a language-learning tool here.
I have been using Evernote and love it. It was very easy to learn and free! Zoho seems to be very similar.
I recently found your blog and have learned and used a great deal of your suggestions. I am a high school math teacher in Texas.
Evernote - quick, easy, and useful. I use it for everything at this point, from notes I take in class to whatever I stumble across on the web, to my knitting patterns (because I can use the iPhone app to pull them up when I'm cut off from the computer)... The search functions are awesome, as is the text recognition for images.
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