Google Notes

Refactoring and rebranding underway, details to follow. -Richard Hoelscher, 7/2/08

Google Notes is a personal notepad for your Google Homepage or Google Desktop. It can also function as a publicly-editable "shoutbox" on your blog.

Features you'll find with Google Notes include:

Automatic note saving (i.e. you don't have to click save)
Selectable font size
"Last-update" timestamp with selectable timezone
Print button
Full-screen mode (useful if you have a lot of notes, and it can be bookmarked in your browser)
Ability to hide timestamp and toolbar
Backup to Email (using the email address you provided, you can have it send you an email with your note contents)
Automated email backups*

*Users who support Google Notes development and hosting costs by donating can sign up for automated email backups. This feature will send email backups daily, weekly, or monthly, allowing you to maintain an archive of your notes and access a recent copy in the event of server downtime. Suggested donation amount is $1/month or $10/year. To add a module to your homepage, click any button(s) below.
Small Notepad

Medium Notepad

Large Notepad

More information about Google Notes can be found at the following locations:
New Google Notes Feature: Automated Email Backups
New Feature for Google Notes: Backup to Email
Google Notes feature: Full Screen
Too much of a good thing...
Google Notes: New Print Button and Font Size Selection
Usage data for Google Notes
Update to Google Notes
Google Notes (unofficial personalized homepage module)

FAQ
Why won't it save a blank notepad?
If you try to empty your notepad contents, you will receive a message informing you that your notepad is not saved. This is to protect you from accidental deletion of your notes.

What if you really want your notes deleted?
If you are certain you want to erase your notes, delete them and type a space (or any random character).

Why was this "feature" added?
Because of the way Google handles the modules, dragging the notepad to a different location or adding new modules could unintentionally report that your notepad is empty. After personally losing my own notes this way, I decided that it would be best to err on the safe side by preventing empty notepad contents. It may seem slightly more annoying this way (as you could come across previously deleted contents), but it's infinitely preferable to finding your notes accidentally deleted when you least expect it.

Is there a privacy policy?
Yes. The privacy policy can be found here. Basically, it says "we'll protect your privacy".

Is there a word count feature?
Yes. Click on the full screen button. In the URL, there is a part that says "wordcount=". If this is changed to "wordcount=1" then a wordcount will be provided along with the timestamp.

How can I integrate Google Notes into my blog (or other website)?

First, add a new notepad to your Google Homepage and give it an email and category combo (the buttons to the column on the right of this blog will add a notepad for you). Click "save" and then click the full-screen button. Copy the URL at the top of your browser. (You can even bookmark it if you want to jump directly to your notepad in the future.)
In your blog/website template, set up an iframe pointing to the URL you copied in step 1. You can paste the following code in your template and it should work (if you replace "foo.html" with the URL you copied in the first step).