Google To Re-Evaluate?

I have received some good anonymous feedback to focus our efforts on ways we get Google to re-evaluate their decision to halt stoppage of development on Google Notebook ... versus other potential options. I love the feedback.

Here were the three ideas put forth (I liked' em so much I stole'em verbatim):

  1. Grass-roots efforts with enough publicity to get them to reconsider.

  2. Well-thought-out proposals for integrating Notebook into other Google services like Gmail, Gcal, Gdocs, etc., and somehow getting their execs to see the light.



  3. A polite plea to sanitize the Firefox extension's code of anything proprietary and then open-source it, so it could be integrated with another service.

The other idea that has been floating around is an online petition.

What I find most interesting, is not the number of people who appear to be upset with this decision, but rather the level of intensity, commitment, and excitement users had about Notebook. These are the users every software company fawns over.

A well-publicized grass roots effort may have an impact. I will be giving more thought to how to pull something like this off ... IDEAS are welcome.

7 comments:

  1. (Suggestion #1: enable blank lines in these comments! My paragraph separation disappears!)

    I was quite surprised to see your blog post disappear, only to see my suggestions appear in a new one. It's nice to see that someone agrees with me. :) I hope you don't think that I have any inside information that lead me to post "anonymously"; I'm merely a user who doesn't want to see this great service go away. As for ideas... Well, the petition is a good start. Publicizing it would be a good second step. I'd start submitting it to bigger places, like Slashdot (though I doubt it'd make it there), digg, and then go for newsier outlets like Ars Technica and Wired's blogs. I think the second step should be starting a group to unify the users in their efforts to fight this decision. A Google Group might be good, but I'd avoid the existing, official one in case Google decides to close it down. Third, I think this site should be expanded into a less "bloggy" site, with more emphasis on long-term projects; it needs more than just a feed of articles. The first page of the site should have a few large elements that outline the basic things that people can do, like sign the petition, join the group, email Google, email news outlets, and even working on open-source projects to replace Google Notebook. (I'd be happy to run a PHP or Python app on my own server for my own personal use if it interfaced with the Firefox extension.) Finally, I am wondering about an outside-the-box campaign to get the attention of Google's execs. I'm thinking something that's a bit more tangible than simply an online campaign of petitions, blogs, and emails. I'm not sure exactly what, and I don't know if there are enough Notebook users to pull it off--we'd probably need thousands of people--but it's something to think about.

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  2. Me said above : "I think the second step should be starting a group to unify the users in their efforts to fight this decision."

    Yes. We should create a big shared public notebook with many many collaborators!!! And put the link on many blogs and forums.

    I have the slogan:
    TO SUPPORT GOOGLE NOTEBOOK, USE IT!

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  3. I like the idea of using Notebook to save it through a shared Notebook ... however to share it, we'd need to get everyone's email address. Probably not very realistic to expect.

    Lots to think about. Keep the ideas coming!

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  4. Ideas are coming...

    We can use the export option...
    So, we export one of our notebooks and send you the xml file to "savenotebook at gmail dot com"

    Then, you have to import each notebook to one of your notebook called "savenotebook"

    Realistic? Possible?

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  5. It seems to me that the most likely occurrence would be them open-sourcing or selling the application.

    Convincing Google to rehash a service that they are evidently no longer interested in supporting seems highly unlikely (not that I wouldn't welcome the turn of events).

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  6. I think it's enough to share with savenotebook the adress of our notebook user profile directory with all our public notebooks and savenotebook can create a notebook with all of them
    this is mine
    http://www.google.com/notebook/user/03104919705844713659

    To reach this page you need to have at least a published notebook, click on "view" and then on "More by --your-nick--"

    I think also we can suggest to Google how to monetize google notebook in a way we consider acceptable and not obtrusive like with sponsored links as in gmail
    see this as an example

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  7. Good idea -- let's share our public notebooks here in support of Google Notebook. Here's mine: http://www.google.com/notebook/user/17164505529245183945

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