Google Labs' Notebook Naming Retrospective
sama · x · 2026-07-17
This reference forwards Steven Johnson's reflection on his experience at Google Labs working on an AI-first 'tool/thinking' project, and later explains why the product was eventually named Notebook.
He mentions that when he joined Google Labs in the summer of 2022, the team had just formed and the office was nearly empty; the project initially advanced under the codename Tailwind, and in 2023 they started considering an official brand name. The team engaged brand consultants for brainstorming, but the names provided were too 'imagery-oriented,' lacking the simplicity and directness of classic Google products. Based on his long-standing interest in journals and commonplace books, he favored 'Notebook' as it better fit the product's positioning as a 'space for recording, organizing, and thinking.'
Related event: Writer Recalls the Origins of Google NotebookLM(3 posts)→
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