What are the Global Notes?

The Global Notes are a solution for the centralized storage and accessing of the bookmarks. It has the following key features:

Quick and easy saving of the link to the current page over the Firefox or Chrome add-on in the database
Quick search and access to the stored bookmarks over an easy and quick backend interface or over the standard FireFox search field

It is distributed under the Apache license. That means, you can use it in any way you want – you can change it, redistribute it, use in a commercial application, earn millions with it etc.

Why have I developed this solution?

I was a happy user of the Google Notebook, until the Google has stopped the support of the Google Notebook and the corresponding Firefox add-on. I switched to the Zoho Notebook, but my luck was not long, the Zoho has stopped the support of the Firefox add-on since the version 4 of the Firefox. I tried out some other solutions, but was not lucky with them. All they has bulky, severe and uncomfortable user interface, the user had to do much more actions than necessary, to get result.

The Global Notes let do it as quickly as possible.

How does it work?

The Global Notes consist of two parts:

A Firefox or Chrome add-on, which has to be installed into the Firefox or Chrome.
A backend WEB application, written on PHP 5.2.x and MySQL 5.x. This application should be installed either by your provider or at your own server. You have the control over your stuff, not the Big Brother! The installation is done over a simple wizard and is easy for anybody.

Saving of a bookmark:

While surfing, the user does one click to call the edit mask – either over the context menu (right mouse button) or over the hot key [Ctrl+F9]. Then, he does the second click - OK button or the second time [Ctrl+F9] - to store the link and additional information to the backend. The title and the URL are automatically placed in to the edit mask. If the user has selected some text, it is also automatically placed into the edit mask. Optionally, the user can provide some keywords and assign the bookmark to tags.

Searching saved bookmarks:

The user comes directly to the note list; the search field gets the focus, so that the user can directly type in the search key and press the Enter to find the desired bookmark and click the target link.

The backend WEB application can be added to the standard FireFox search field so that the search of the Global Notes can be initiated directly from the FireFox toolbar. For that, go to the address backend WEB application with the FireFox and open the dropdown list of the search options of the FireFox search field. You should see the option “Add Global Notes”. Click this option. Then, the Global Notes search should be listed among other search options of the standard FireFox search field.

Supported languages

English
German
Russian
Polish

Need localization for your language?

Download the language files in English from the link below and provide the translations to your language. The encoding is UTF-8.

Download languages files

When you provide me the translations, I will integrate them into the application.

Screenshots

Screenshot

Downloads

Resource	Download link	Version	Release date
Documentation:	UserGuide.pdf		12.12.2012
Backend WEB Application:	GlobalNotesBackend.zip	2.2	16.12.2012
FireFox Add-on:	GlobalNotes.xpi	1.8	15.15.2013
Chrome Add-on:	GlobalNotes.crx	1.7	12.12.2012

Applying Updates

The backend WEB application might be periodically updated due to bug fixing and implementation of new features. Check periodically this website to see whether there is a newer version of the WEB application available. To check your version, click on the button "About" in the right top corner.

The ZIP archive "GlobalNotesBackend.zip", which is used for the installation, can be also used for the update. Just extract the archive and overwrite the old files of the application with the new ones.