Don't Abandon Google Notebook!

To whom it may concern:

I embraced Google Notebook when it was first made available. I found it a reasonable notebook application, and since it offered a certain amount of integration with other Google applications -- either through Google directly or through add-ons -- it met my need to push my work off my PC and into the clouds.

Then, as more add-ons were created, making it my application-of-choice for cutting pieces of information out of articles needed as research for my blogging (or whatever), I became rather dependent upon it.

And finally, once I began to embrace the sharing functionality, it became an important part of my household organization, whereas my wife and I could use it to maintain important lists of information to which one or both of us needed to attend.

I have always hoped, yes, and even expected Google to continue to develop and, more importantly, integrate it into all of its offerings. Although a bit messy at times, the integration between it and Google docs made it easy to take my collected notes, migrate them to a Google doc, and with some tweaking, post them to my / a blog.

If I have to re-engineer my process using another application suite -- say, like Zoho or EverNote -- then why not just use their suite of products and abandon Google altogether? This is the question with which I and many other Notebook users are now faced.

I've been a loyal Google follower, and have heralded the excellent applications that those of you at Google have made available to us all. And [essentially] free, no less!

I guess I knew in the back of my mind that all things change, and some day we might find ourselves faced with having to pay for your applications -- in one way or another -- but I never figured it would be taken away altogether. I think if the clipping function was replicated in Google Docs, then this wouldn't be as large an issue for me. Perhaps I haven't looked that closely, but based upon the outrage this has generated, I probably haven't missed anything.

I'm still hoping the ground-swell reaction to this will make you at least reconsider your decision.

Still a #1 Google fan,

Michael