Yoono Buzz It: Notebooks Reinvented

yoono.pngSocial surfing recommendation site Yoono has released a new plugin “Buzz It” that takes services such as Google Notebook to a new level.

Most people would be familiar with notebook and scrapbook style sites and plugins. You can add notes, reminders and links. Buzz It takes those basics and incorporates a rich Web 2.0 experience.

The plugin is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox and installs a new toolbar. It’s an initial negative that can be fixed. Relevant buttons on the toolbar (in Firefox) can be dragged onto existing place holders at the top of the browser.

Recording sites or notes with Buzz It is as simple as highlighting text or a page, then pressing a button or using the right click menu. An Ajax overlay appears with the relevant information. The plugin pulls images and videos from any site being viewed and then displays those results in the Buzz It sidebar, empowering drag and drop functionality into an entry. Amazon book links and even Google Maps can be generated inline and added to any post.

Buzz It also doubles as a blog posting tool. Most major platforms are supported and it’s one of the better blog posting tools I’ve used. It needs some work, the markup generated is below average and images posted are served from the original site and are not reposted locally; however for a MySpace user or casual blogger these are not going to be major issues. It’s simple, clean and easy to use.

The plugin integrates with Yoono’s social surfing recommendation platform and comes with the usual site recommendation style tools typical of this sort of service. If you’re in to this sort of thing then it’s one of the better services out there and currently boasts of having over 700,000 members.

Yes, Buzz It another plugin with (OMG!) another toolbar but looking past this I can honestly say that it is impressive. It’s smart, cool looking and is bound to have a broad range of appeal.