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Microsoft's Thumbtack, an Answer To Google Notebook
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Dec 14, 2008 04:16 AM
from the portal-of-calls dept.
from the portal-of-calls dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft's Live Labs have introduced a new service that lets users collect snippets of information from Web sites and share the collections with others. It's similar in concept to Mozilla's Joey, a defunct project that let people copy and paste portions of Web pages onto a single page that they could access from their mobile phones or another computer. Thumbtack is also like other available services, including Google Notebook. But Thumbtack developers think their service has a difference. 'Thumbtack stands apart in its ability to introspect on incoming data in order to automatically classify it and extract structure from it using machine learning,' according to the FAQ about the service."
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Submission: Thumbtack released: Microsoft's "Google Notebo by Anonymous Coward
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I think an important question here is... (Score:3, Insightful)
So, if you use it... how/why?
Re:I think an important question here is... (Score:5, Informative)
When I have something interesting to paste or write down, and am too lazy to start up my text editor, I use Google Notebook.
The disadvantage of the text editor is that I can only rarely remember what I named a file if I was in a hurry. The notebook lets me search and even preserve markup and images. Basically, Google Notebook is the text editor for the Lazy.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I started using TiddlyWiki ( http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ [tiddlywiki.com] ) for stuff like this. Its basically a .html document with magic javascript so it acts like a wiki. It's obviously only useful if you carry it around with you - Google notebook would be more useful if you are going to be online all the time. But it's pretty handy.
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That is, so long as you're comfortable with the increased possibility of others peeking into what you're clipping into the notebook.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's see: (C-M-c is xterm, thanks to xbindkeys)
C-M-c v i C-j i S-ins ESC : w q
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A
C-t n o t e b o o k . g o o g l e . c o m
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A FAIL
Do the math
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But why would you want to get the same tool from Microsoft?
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> But why would you want to get the same tool from Microsoft?
I wouldn't. Who said I would? I was answering the question of whether and why I use a Notebook service.
Don't NEED to remember the name.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you heard of Google, I presume? You know what its primary service does, right? Did you also know that you can apply that index-and-search paradigm to locally stored content on a single personal computer? No fewer than two (actually many more) products have actually done it:
Microsoft: Windows Indexing Service and Windows Desktop Search
Google: Google Desktop Search
With these devices, when properly installed and used, you don't need to remember the name of a file: all you need to recall is some relevan
Re: (Score:2)
I do not trust local installables from google.
sorry.
I'd never run a 'toolbar' from ANYONE (sheesh) and their local search gives me the creeps.
no thanks.
google is 'ok' for internet things but my local pc or system is MINE and not to be even SEEN by the likes of a google.
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I use Google Desktop.
I also use Google Notebook.
Believe it or not, searching for something in Google Desktop can take more than a minute on my computer. It just isn't worth it when another service is far faster and I'm always online.
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To be honest I can't see myself using it for more than that but that is a nice thing to have.
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I use Google Notebook quite a bit... more for saving online bookmarks so I can reference them at work or at home. In this way it serves a purpose similar to online bookmarking sites such as Delicious. I do save actual clippings of webpages from time to time.
You could set-up multiple notebooks and categorize entries per notebook. You could also use Google to search entries in your notebooks. I actually find Google notebook more useful than Delicious for saving and searching bookmarks which I could then acces
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Is there way to extract the data in a structured format if I want to move to an other service. If so then I'd use it. Otherwise, no.
Fire up the copiers Redmond! (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously. Whats next? Windows 7 will feature a task bar at the top of the screen with a magnifying shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen?
Re:Fire up the copiers Redmond! (Score:5, Funny)
And someone in Redmond reads this post and thinks: "Hmmm....!"
Parent
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Exactly. If I worked for Microsoft I'd be friggin' depressed. Do they have no originality or desire to be innovative AT ALL?
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[MS has ] done lots of innovative things. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish was born in Redmond.
Never heard of those -
Is that like "Stop, Drop and Roll" ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop,_drop_and_roll [wikipedia.org]
(Or "Rescue Alarm Confine Extinguish/Exit" ?)
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How about tab browsing in Windows Explorer? Put an end to this "open in new window" and "open in same window" debate! No longer will My Computer and the Control Panel be in separate windows!
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In fact computers were known as typewriters before Microsoft came to life.
I'm glad you're setting the record straight and if these people don't listen then throw your chair at 'em!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You're right Microsoft invented everything which is why GUIs never existed before Microsoft.
If you think I even implied MS invented the 'taskbar' concept, you are either a fool or your tinfoil hat is on too tight.
My example was about a feature MS 'effectively' already provided, yet the browser 'fanbois' pushed for the tabs to be placed inside the browser like all the other neato 'browsers' were doing.
This was to illustrate that MS is often forced to copy crap because fools decide they want crap. PERIOD.
The
IE Addon vs. Firefox Extension (Score:3, Funny)
From TFA:
Thumbtack works in Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it lacks some features when used in Firefox, Microsoft said.
So the Firefox extension lacks the "Share" or "Publish" ability, right?
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From TFA:
Thumbtack works in Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it lacks some features when used in Firefox, Microsoft said.
So the Firefox extension lacks the "Share" or "Publish" ability, right?
Especially when used in Firefox in Linux or MacOS I expect...
Awww (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, how cute! Clippy's got a cousin.
I bet Thumby's classification of information works just as well as Clippy's classification of my current action.
Copy and paste websites? (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought Microsoft was against the "theft" (infringement) of Intellectual "Property" (assets).
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Thumbtack? (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft will Remain Second Rate Player on Web (Score:5, Insightful)
FTA: "Thumbtack works in Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it lacks some features when used in Firefox, Microsoft said."
Microsoft just doesn't get it. If you can't get your service to work with all major browsers, your service is going to be seen as inferior, not the browser.
And apparently, Microsoft thinks people like being forced to use their software. Well, guess what? They don't. They resent it. It's not 1999 anymore. People now understand AOL is not synonymous with the Internet and Microsoft is not synonymous with software.
Slashdot will Remain Second Rate Player on Web (Score:2)
"And apparently, Microsoft thinks people like being forced to use their software. Well, guess what? They don't. "
Apple, Apple, Apple. Now what was your argument again?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This makes no sense. The code is already there to make it work on firefox. There are probably five or more extensions that do this kind of thing on Firefox, and some are already superior to Google notebooks. They should just use that code (at least for the client-side), and stop trying to reinvent the wheel
And for some that might say that the license might be a problem, think again, most
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree.
Google Notebook is also the wrong target. While it's useful, I think it's something of a niche feature these days, as other online services seem to be passing it by. Even Google buries it in the "even more" submenu.
If Microsoft really wanted to get noticed, they should have taken the organizational and editing features of OneNote, and combined them with the distributed synchronization and text/image/online/offline searching of Evernote. That would have been a killer product.
I used to be a Google
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Maybe the whole Microsoft tool is a 60 000 Eur investment or a "Oh, you coded that?" or a "So we also acquired that Notebook tool..." or made for some corporate functionality checklist, you know, no one likes Ballmer to throw a chair.
Still, Microsoft is looking for the "don't do evil" technology licensing. It is really hard to get that stuff.
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Microsoft just doesn't get it. If you can't get your service to work with all major browsers, your service is going to be seen as inferior, not the browser.
You mean a site like Slashdot?
Statements like this are quite silly and a bit paranoid, especially when you consider that the site you are posting it on offers features to Firefox that it denies to other browsers.
Using IE on Slashdot you lose a lot of features for very basic reading and commenting on the site.
It is almost like Slashdot is programmed for I
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Webmasters have no obligations to cater to a particular browser.
If this was said about Firefox, I'd be able to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from a million miles away. Won't fly.
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Microsoft just doesn't get it. If you can't get your service to work with all major browsers, your service is going to be seen as inferior, not the browser.
Meh... people who have rejected Microsoft's browser aren't likely to use many of their web services anyway. So they are losing less than it would at first appear.
That said, I avoid Google's services like the plague... they get enough information about me from my use of search, plus the tracking they do via their ads, plus all the sites that use their ana
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And apparently, Microsoft thinks people like being forced to use their software.
Microsoft may not have the best reputation, but they aren't ignorant.
Having said that, no one is forced to use Microsoft's software. Microsoft simply requires IE to get the full feature set for Thumbtack. That doesn't make it incompatible with FF.
I have a few issues with this decision, but I certainly don't think it's wrong. No one is forced to use Thumbtack; there are alternatives to it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft just doesn't get it. If you can't get your service to work with all major browsers, your service is going to be seen as inferior, not the browser.
Tell that to Google. Google Maps has had this [game-point.net] bug in Google Maps for YEARS now that causes printing in Firefox to be broken (because Firefox actually does things correctly), yet to look OK in IE6 and IE7. Do people think Google Maps is inferior? Hell, it doesn't work AT ALL in Opera.
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Clippy? (Score:3, Funny)
Even the thought of office stationery in relation to Microsoft brings back those horrible nightmares...
Coming soon... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft Thumbscrew! The product guaranteed to make you scream in agony! Now with even more boneheaded user interface design decisions! Order now, and we'll somehow work in DRM and the Internet Explorer rendering engine, too!
not new there either, most likely ;-) (Score:2)
Google's services all also, of course, "introspect on incoming data in order to automatically classify it and extract structure from it using machine learning" -- for the purpose of serving up contextual ads.
Is Google Notebook being discontinued? (Score:3, Interesting)
The citation is missing. Can someone verify that this is true? Why is Microsoft competing against a project that Google is dropping?
P.s. Can someone who knows more about this topic fix the Wikipedia page? Thanks!
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For some reason the reference doesn't show up, but it is there if you look at the wiki source.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826503489174369.html [wsj.com]
I can't help myself (Score:2)
Don't call it a thumbtack!
It's been here for years.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft have woken up to the threat of Google, and the fact that Google have caught Microsoft with their pants down on several new revenue models. They assume "if Google are doing it, then we need to". Every competing service they do, to try and take share away from Google fails. They want to buy Yahoo (or parts of it) to buy that marketshare where they failed to get it with their own services. They seem oblivious to the fact that their products and services have to be forced on people, that most people d
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Goobuntu? I thought that was only a private released...
Re:All those long words (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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This is how Al-Qaeda communicates. There, I typed Al-Qaeda so this will be thoroughly analyzed by some sort of government agency.