Google Notebook

As a class assignment, I took a look at "Google Notebook" to see how it might be useful in my research. I found it to be intuitive - I figured it our fairly quickly without having to rely on tutorials (I only read directions as a last resort!). I was able to access my notes from three different computers, 2 PC's and 1 Mac.

I posted a series of entries and was able to add keywords to select and sort them as I wished. I cut and pasted web content directly into posts with no problem. There is a Browser Tool add on that automatically adds a hyperlink of the original source to the post, saving me the trouble of doing it manually (and that can be a lot of trouble - web addresses can get very long). Google Notebook does not have any bibliographic tools as far as I could tell.

I like the fact that I can access my notes from any computer, and I don't have to download software to my computer unless I want to use the Browser Tool. Portability was mentioned as a concern in class, and I share that concern because I do most of my work on public computers, where downloading software is verboten. I agree with Oracle's Larry Ellison that the whole idea of putting a separate copy of each bit of software on each separate computer in the world is bogus and inefficient, and share his vision of accessing computing and applications over the Internet by subscription.