I am slowly making my way through the ever-growing list of Google Apps available on their website and have just had my first dabble with Google Notebook. From my early observations it seems to be a reasonable (but not ultimate) alternative to del.icio.us for all your online bookmarking needs.
Similarities
- Both enable to to quickly add a bookmark/reference of a website to a central online location.
- Both use a nifty Firefox plugin to get the job done.
- Both are searchable.
- Both use labels, but while del.icio.us can assign many labels to one link, Notebook allows a link to belong to only one label (or notebook).
- Both allow you to share your bookmarks with others.
Differences
- del.icio.us user pages are visible to everyone, Notebook pages have to specifically shared.
- del.icio.us allows you to save a single link for a friend, which will appear in a special list on the recipient’s page, but Notebook only allows the sharing of a whole notebook.
- You can use Notebook as a simple note-taking tool without having a link to the original source.
Conclusions
I like the idea of having all the online services that I use in a central location. Google is making a good go of making this a reality. But for the time being I think del.icio.us will continue to be my online bookmarker of choice, just because of the multi-label and networking functions.
I’m sure these two applications were not designed to be in direct competition - which makes a direct comparison a bit unfair - I couldn’t help but notice that they both provide a similar service.
My Google usage
Daily use:
- Search
- Gmail
- Calendar
- Reader
Weekly use:
Less frequent use:
- News
- Images
- Docs and Spreadsheets
- Groups
The last word
While Google may not be catering perfectly to everything I do on the internet, they’re making a damn good go of it. Here’s hoping they don’t get all nasty and start charging for all their services.
Published at September 25, 2006
in Internet.
It may have passed by so quietly that most of you didn’t even notice it, but last Friday was OneWebDay. It’s all about people getting very excited about how much the internet has improved their existance on this planet.
Now, I am someone who is very quick to sing the praises of the internet and all the cool stuff that comes along with it. But I don’t think I’m quite at the stage where I feel the urge to get together with a whole heap of nerds, stand around arm-in-arm in a big circle, and worship the big god that is cyber-space.
Maybe I’m only half as nerdy as I once thought?
I’m one of those people who thinks having web access at home is essential and having not had it since moving in a few weeks ago, it’s amazing how much you miss it. Not miss it in the way an addict misses their particular vise, but more so in a way that makes you realise how much it’s actually a part of our lives these days. I felt quite old fashioned last week when I was filling in the Census form and had to say we didn’t have internet access at home.
So on Tuesday I signed up for a new ADSL2+ plan from TPG. Today I read in the paper that Google is about to start providing their entire town with free Wi-Fi internet access. Why doesn’t somebody do that for us poor Aussies? I draw your attention to two of my earlier posts: Telstra ditches broadband plans and Google is taking over the world.
You gotta love big company mentality. This week Telstra decided it isn’t going to go forward with plans to build a national high-speed internet network. It is reported that discussions held between Telstra and the ACCC regarding the wholesale of access to the network to other parties has caused considerable unrest for Telstra. So as a result, unfortunately, Australians are left to spend their internet time waiting on some of the slowest “broadband” connections in the developed world.
Despite this lack of enthusiasm for providing its customers with the best technology possible, Telstra is still prepared to charge me $300 to get a phone connected at my new house. These are crazy times we live in.
I’ve just been browsing around del.icio.us to waste some time, and have made some disturbing discoveries.
First, the websites some people choose to bookmark can be very strange.
Second, a person who goes by the username elliefish, has a very bad habbit of tagging sites about underware with the tag “damon“. This is upsetting to me. What have I done to deserve this kind of association? I have listed a couple of the more “interesting” undie sites below:
Some of you may have heard already that Google has launched a Beta version of a new online spreadsheet application. Apparently they want to knock Microsoft of their perch as “world leaders” in all things computers. Access to the spreadsheets is at their invitation. You have to register your interest and they will send you an invite when they’re good and ready, first come first served.
The product is nowhere near as powerful as MS Excel but it might be one day. I’m still not 100% sure why you need your spreadsheets online or why you need to share them with other people.
The other Google app that I rate pretty highly is Google Calendar. This online version of your diary is easy to use and sharing your calendar with family and firends makes more sense than sharing your spreadsheets. You can invite other users to events and all sorts of other fun stuff. I haven’t used an online calendar before, but while doing some reading on the topic, it seems that Google’s offering lacks some features that other, longer running products provide. I just like how it integrates with my gmail so well (as you would expect, really). It might be time to retire the old Palm pilot, considering I stopped carrying it around with me years ago.
I’m looking forward to the real MS killer: Google OS. Only a matter of time maybe?
Australian scientists believe they are on the verge of a breakthrough in optical circuitry that may improve the speed of the internet by a factor of 1000.
Read full story.
We can live in hope, I suppose.
