Last week’s announcement that Google is shutting down Google Notebook has many of us scrambling to find a new bookmarking and annotation tool. One of the bookmarking and annotation services that am trying as a Google Notebook replacement is Zigtag.

Zigtag operates as a browser add-on on the left side of your browser window. From there you can “tag” or bookmark websites using your own descriptions or pre-formatted descriptions. In this regard, tagging is semantic or based on “natural” language. If the loss of browser window space is a concern for you, you can also right click to tag pages through Zigtag’s browser add-on. Watch the video below for a visual explanation fo Zigtag in action.

Zigtag is a social bookmarking service so, as you would expect, you can easily share your bookmarks and search other users’ bookmarks. Within Zigtag you can create or join groups for sharing bookmarks with other users with similar interests. If you’re not the sharing type, you can choose to keep some or all of your bookmarks private.

Finally, if you have bookmarks saved in your Delicious account or bookmarks in your browser that you would like to continue using, Zigtag has an import option for your convenience.

Applications for Education
Zigtag’s group option could be useful for creating professional learning networks. The group option could also be useful for students that are working in groups on research projects.