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Filed under: Internet, Google, Web

Zoho, Evernote, reach out to disenfranchised Google Notebookers

Zoho notebook importer

Last week Google announced plans to shut down or cease development of a number of products including Jaiku, Google Video, and Google Notebook. While nobody was really surprised to see the company that owns YouTube announce it would stop allowing Google Video uploads, users who have come to rely on Google Notebook for saving notes and web links were a bit disappointed, to say the least.

Google isn't actually eliminting Google Notebook. You can still use the service. But the company will no longer be updating it, so don't expect any improvements, bug fixes, or tech support anytime soon.

Smelling an opportunity, other companies which allow users to jot notes and save web clips online are reaching out to Google Notebook users. Zoho has released a new version of its Notebook toolbar for Firefox, as well as a tool for importing Google Notebook items. EverNote is reportedly working on a similar tool. And both companies have purchased Google AdWords to advertise their services as alternatives to Google Notebook.

Digital Inspiration has put together a good list of other services that are trying to attract Google Notebook users.

Update: Evernote's Google Notebook import tool is up and running.

Filed under: News, Google, Web

It's the end of Google Video, Notebook, and Jaiku as we know it

Google Video Uploads
Google has announced plans to close, stop development of, or dramatically alter a number of services including Google Video, Google Notebook, Google Catalog Search, Jaiku, Dodgeball, and Google Mashup Editor.

Some of the services will still be around for a while, but active development has stopped which means there won't be any new features for Google Notebook or Google Video. And in a few months Google will stop accepting new uploads for Google Video which means the site will function as a video search engine and a repository of old videos.

Google Catalog Search is going away altogether, as is Dodgeball and Google Mashup Editor. Micro-blogging service Jaiku will live on as an open source project that will be maintained by volunteers from Google and outside.

Yesterday Google also wrote on its official blog that the company is eliminating about 100 recruiting jobs and may lose some of its engineering staff as the company tries to relocate some job positions.

[via Search Engine Land]

Filed under: Internet, Google, Search

Google updates: Mobile notebook and faster Reader updates

Google Notebook MobileIonut Alex Chitu over at Google Operating System has spotted a few new updates from the Google camp today.

First up is faster RSS updates in Google Reader. Until recently, Google would only update some feeds once an hour, while less popular feeds would only be refreshed every three hours or so. Considering the fact that Google has recently managed to launch search engine technology that manages to index web pages and blogs nearly instantaneously, this always struck us as a bit odd. But Chitu reports that he's starting to notice his feeds being updated almost immediately, and based on our experience with Google Reader so far today, we're inclined to believe him.

Chitu's other discovery of the day is the fact that Google has launched a mobile version of Google Notebook. Again, this shouldn't be that exciting, since Google has long offered mobile versions of most of its services. But so far, Google Notebook has been absent from that list, which was a real shame, because the ability to save web pages and notes on your desktop and access them on your mobile phone seems like a no-brainer to us. Apparently Google has finally agreed, since www.google.com/notebook/m now directs you to a version of Google Notebook optimized for the small screen.

Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Google

Google Notebook adds support for labels

Google Notebook labels
Google has added support for labels to Google Notebook. The move isn't surprising. You can use labels to organize Gmail, Google Documents, RSS feeds in Google Reader, and the list goes on. What is a bit surprising is that it's taken so long to roll out support for labels in Google Notebook.

Labels are automatically imported from your Google Bookmarks settings, if you use Google Bookmarks. You can then sort or filter your notes by label using either the Google Notebook web page or the Google Notebook browser plugin.

[via Google Operating System]

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