Wei  Sheng

Smart Canvas by Google - Google's answer to Notion

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Smart canvas lets you do things like linking to other documents, tagging in coworkers, and quickly assigning tasks inside Google Docs or Google Sheets.

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Sumit Suman
dear google - just put a wiki style navigation on drive/workspace/whatever-new-name-you-want-to-give it and you would kill Notion. I heard its tricky for your architecture but find a way please, you are google!
Martin C
@arraysum checkout https://nalu.fyi - we'll soon be launching in PH
monirom
@arraysum yeah, but google has disappointed many users with it’s patchwork support for its own products. The current hangouts to chat within free and paid versions of its products is an example of a less than optimum migration. At one time Google had 22 different ways to message. - but I digress. The beauty of Notion is how it puts software customization in the hands of its users. And how they defined this flexibility so your documents could be rolled up into databases and databases could be linked to talk to each other. https://www.notion.so/blog/data-...
apuchitnis
This is an interesting idea, but I'd like to see how it integrates with Google Drive. One of the advantages of Notion is that all of your files are in one place and it's really easy to navigate between them using the keyboard shortcut or the navigation on the left of the app. In contrast, my Drives are normally a mess with a semi-managed hierarchy.
Atmos Black
@apuchitnis Actually it's nothing new. We had Google Wave (15?) years ago and it was exactly the same product and killed off like most others by Google
monirom
We created a database of GSuite documents in Notion. So we have the best of both worlds, a searchable/indexable dataset that can be searched, filtered, and sorted. It serves as a bridge for those of us authoring 100% in notion and those still transitioning from GSuite or wishing to continue to work with google products. Everyone is so much happier and productive.
Jacob Sam-La Rose
@monirom does that mean you’ve created a Notion record/item for each of your GSuite documents? With metadata to facilitate searching and filtering? I was considering doing the same with one of my teams but wondered about time invested vs payoff…
monirom
@jsamlarose exactly. Its paid off in dividends when it comes to our most used documents. Especially when the documents are owned/authored by multiple employees/team members. Its really improved workflow. Worry less about getting everything into Notion and just do it for your most used documents and your new documents moving forward. And the doc still lives in Google docs, retains it’s permissions and its just easier to find.
Jacob Sam-La Rose
@monirom that makes a lot of sense, and validates something I was considering but wasn’t sure about. Thanks!
Dave Poly
Google coming for Notion, AirTable, and Monday.com's necks...
Wei  Sheng
This looks interesting to me. Google has just turned its workspace suite into a Notion alternative.
monirom
@wei_sheng not really. Finding and sharing documents in Gsuite is still a pain for large enterprises. You spend more time looking fir things than you do on the actual work. And the secret sauce of Notion is the flexibility of its data structure. Everything can be rolled up into a database because at the core thats what Notion really is.
Wei  Sheng
@monirom Yeah, that makes sense
Chris Frantz
Seriously, Google Drive needs a file tree.
Douglas Evaristo
I still prefer notion...
Atmos Black
It looks like Wave, it feels like Wave, it IS Wave! Good old times!
Judson Dunn
@atmos_black hey, wave was cool, they just forgot to think about onboarding people 😆
monirom
@atmos_black @jud5on yeah they gave people more than they could handle at one time.
David Grills
When should users start to see these features. Nothing for me yet in a education environment.
Robert Lucore
I don't actually see the product. Just PR about what the product is...
Óamm
Lol, when will Google learn? Most of their products fail horribly. Notion for life.
Lee Sherman
Does anybody know when it will be available for all Google Docs users not just Workplace?
Stowe Boyd
@lsherman I have workplace and it's not available to me, yet
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