There was a lot of speculation that Google would remove the Search Notes feature from the Google Search labs results last May after we past its official end date of December 2023. Then Google changed the date to says notes will end soon but it still remained a live labs feature.
Now, eight months later, Google has officially said it is ending the Notes Labs feature. Notes will stop working at the end of this month, Google told me.
Google told 9to5Google and also me:
"Search Labs is our testbed for bold experimentation and as we’ve shared, not all experiments will launch broadly. We’ve seen in our research that people want to hear from others like them and Notes was an exploration of how to help people share their knowledge right on Search. We’re excited to continue testing new ways to connect people to authentic, relatable voices and look forward to bringing some of our learnings from Notes into future product experiences."
This is after I mocked Google for keeping Notes up just last week:
I guess Notes in Google Search did not go away in May. 📝 pic.twitter.com/Lq5HBuDxBz
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 9, 2024
I should add that we recently saw Google test a new style for notes buttons in Search and rumors are that Google may bring comments to Notes.
It took Google longer than most of us thought to end Notes but now it is gone.
Here is a copy of the Notes search developer documentation so we have it:
Here is there video on this feature - which may go away at some point too:
Forum discussion at X.
Update: On July 19th Google updated the notes page to note, "Update on July 19, 2024: Notes is winding down at the end of July 2024. If you created a note, your notes content is available to download using Google Takeout through the end of August 2024."
Update August 1st: Search Notes seem to be fully gone now, as expected:
Google Search Notes seems to now be fully gone... https://t.co/zpOk1iHQmN pic.twitter.com/Y7gkkgdfkW
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 1, 2024
