Google Notebook

Clip text and links from the web into online notebooks, from a 2006 browser extension to a 2012 export into Docs

Shut down
19902026

Google Notebook was a web clipping and note-taking service, launched on 15 May 2006, that let users save text, links and images from web pages into online notebooks through a browser extension and a small pop-up window, then organise and share them. Google stopped developing it in January 2009, announced its shutdown in September 2011, moved notebooks into Google Docs and closed the service in July 2012.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2006
  2. 15 May 2006 Launch
    Google Notebook launches

    A clipping extension and an online notebook.

  3. 2008
  4. 24 June 2008 Decline
    Evernote launches publicly

    A better-funded rival for the same job.

  5. 2009
  6. 14 January 2009 Decline
    Development stops

    Closed to new users; existing notebooks keep working.

  7. 2011
  8. 2 September 2011 Shutdown announced
    Notebook to be shut down

    Notebooks to be exported to Google Docs.

  9. 11 November 2011 other
    Export to Docs begins; Notebook read-only
  10. 2012
  11. July 2012 Shutdown
    Google Notebook goes offline

The site through time

Browse google.com/notebook as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Google 2006–2012 Founded

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Google stopped developing Notebook on 14 January 2009, closing it to new users but leaving it running, then in September 2011 said it would shut it down: existing notebooks were exported automatically to Google Docs from November 2011 and the service went offline in July 2012. Evernote had built an importer for Google Notebook data on the day development stopped, and got many of its users. Google Keep, launched in 2013, is its closest descendant.

Our analysis: Notebook was one of the mid-2000s Google products that solved a real problem, saving bits of the web as you read it, and then sat unloved while the company's attention moved on. Evernote, a start-up whose whole business was the same problem, out-built it within a year of launch, and Google, which had Docs, Reader, Bookmarks and Gmail all overlapping with it, chose to have fewer products. It was closed carefully, with an export, which is why it is remembered fondly rather than angrily.

History [edit]

Clip as you browse

Google announced Notebook at its press day on 10 May 2006 and released it on 15 May: a Firefox and Internet Explorer extension that put a small Notebook window in the corner of the browser, so that any text, link or image you selected could be dropped into a notebook without leaving the page, plus a full-page view at google.com/notebook where notes could be organised into sections, searched, shared and published. It was a small, useful tool in the era of "Web 2.0" web apps, and it gained the ability to clip from Google search results, a mobile view and, later, integration with Google Bookmarks.

It never got much more. Evernote launched in 2008 with clipping, sync, desktop apps and a business model, and on 14 January 2009 Google said it would stop development on Notebook, along with Dodgeball, Jaiku, Catalogs and Mashup Editor; the service stayed up, closed to new users, and Evernote released an importer the same week and took the momentum.

Into Docs

In its September 2011 "fall sweep" Google said Notebook would close and that all notebooks would be exported to Google Docs. The migration began in November 2011, when Notebook went read-only, and by July 2012 the service was gone and every user had a Docs document per notebook, formatting mostly intact. Google Keep, launched in March 2013, picked up the note-taking idea again with a different design; Notebook's web-clipping half went to Evernote, Pocket and, eventually, the browsers themselves.

The domain today

google.com/notebook redirects to Google Docs; the URL is unrelated to NotebookLM, Google's 2023 research tool.

Similar projects

AOL Dial-Up The modem noise stopped, AOL did not 1991–2025 MobileMe The Apple service Steve Jobs apologised for 2008–2012 CompuServe The internet before the internet 1979–2009 Pocket Eighteen years of saved-for-later, gone before you read it 2007–2025 Cortana Microsoft's assistant, named after a Halo AI, retired for Copilot 2014–2023 Ovi Nokia's "door" to internet services, an app store, maps, mail and music brand for the Symbian years, dropped in 2011 and closed for good in 2015 2007–2015

Sources [edit]

  1. Google Notebook launches: ho-hum TechCrunch 16 May 2006 [archived]
  2. Stopping development on Google Notebook Official Google Notebook Blog 14 January 2009 [archived]
  3. Evernote releases Google Notebook importer Ars Technica 23 January 2009 [archived]
  4. Google Notebook to be shut down, all existing notebooks to be moved to Google Docs The Next Web 2 September 2011 [archived]

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).