Evernote – Google Notebook Done Better.. Way Better

Last week, I reviewed a cool file sharing web application in private beta – DropBox. I have had a chance to get a sneak peek at another cool web application, Evernote, in the last few weeks. It’s quickly replacing my need for Google Notebook and I find it worth the hassle to login to yet another web application.

Evernote

Evernote, currently in private beta, is definitely Google Notebook done better. Way better.

I have used and liked Google Notebook for a long time. It is very easy to use and is very handy to store things I come across on the web. It helps me store information in different notebooks, with titles and labels so I can easily find what I need at a later time. The Google Notebook Firefox extension made it super easy to add notes without opening up a webpage right from my browser.

Recently, I read about Evernote and signed up for their private beta and have been using it for a few weeks and I am ready to share my findings with you.

Yes, I like being the guinea pig with these new web applications so you can sit back and read my posts and see if you want to try it yourself. 😛

Lets look at what Evernote has to offer:

  • Evernote is a note taking application with a motto of making your notes available anywhere.
  • Evernote is available as a web application, a Windows application, a Mac application as well as a Windows Mobile application. Can you see the common thread with DropBox?
  • All your notes in Evernote are always synchronized across all your devices!
  • You can create new notes with desktop/web or mobile versions of Evernote
  • Create snaphots using camera phone or webcam
  • Clip whole webpages, screenshots or portions of web pages – I like the ability to tag and file a clip as I am clipping.
  • Desktop clients for Mac & Windows even allow drag and drop
  • With the account, you get an ultra-personalized (read: obsure looking) email address that you could use to send notes to Evernote by email!
  • You are supposed to be able to record audio as well and listen to it whenever you want. Haven’t tried this one yet.
  • You get to save your searches and this is a great feature that’ll come handy as your notes volume increases.

In fact, on my linux machine this makes a great web application for Mozilla Prism and it works great as a standalone app! See how the green matches so well with my desktop background. 😉

I have tried everything except the audio part and they all work great. So far, I can hardly tell that it’s a beta product. Either it’s really good or I have been lucky to avoid the bugs. I am thinking it’s just that good. 😉

Evernote is a Freemium product which means it is free while in beta and will stay so after going stable. But, there will be a paid subscription level in the future and the exact feature split is unknown at this time. I hope it will something like Remember the Milk where you get all the features in the free account but you pay for support and out of good will.

Take the Tour

If you’d like to see some of these features in action, take the tour and see it in video.

Beta Invites

My private beta account has 10 invitations in it and as always I would like to share it with my readers. Just leave a comment and the first 10 of you to leave a comment will receive it in their email.

I do have a request to those receiving invites. Since your account will probably come with 10 invites, if each of you could a spare a couple for our readers requesting invites after you, that’ll make it 20 more invites available.

If you’d like to share the good will, mention that in the comment (with number of invites you’d like to share) and I will send you the emails you can share your invites.

In fact, if you have any DropBox invites and would like to share, there are a lot of folks looking for one as I’ve exhausted mine, please visit this post or contact me and I’ll hook you up with folks who want one.

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46 Responses to “Evernote – Google Notebook Done Better.. Way Better”

  1. Mary George Hilbun April 16, 2008 at 1:21 pm #

    I would love to have an invite and can share it with 5 people thank you!

  2. Jean Goronoff April 16, 2008 at 3:04 pm #

    thanks if you can send me an invite; I’ll give all the invite I get.

  3. Herbert April 16, 2008 at 3:48 pm #

    I would be very thankful for receiving an invite; looks very promising to me, i like to test & use it! In case of receiving an account with probably 10 invites, i will share 5 invites with your readers.

    Greetings!

  4. K April 16, 2008 at 4:12 pm #

    I have sent 3 invites out to you all. Wow, I am really amazed by the generosity! We already have 20 invites from 3 readers. Let’s just hope everyone gets 10 invites to start with. 😛

  5. Topsurf April 16, 2008 at 8:21 pm #

    I would love to try this! I will invite too! Thanks!

  6. Mark April 16, 2008 at 8:24 pm #

    Looks like Evernote has grown up a bit. I used to use their tool for clipping notes or web pages I’d come across.

    Mark’s last blog post..Three New WordPress Themes Released: PassionDuo

  7. Ray April 16, 2008 at 9:00 pm #

    Google notebook is pretty good and I still use it.
    But I’m very interested in the everbook and want to have a try. Thanks.

  8. mpb April 17, 2008 at 2:00 am #

    I’d be interested in trying it also. I used the Firefox extension but the notes were hard to edit without messing them up.

    I use Zotero for research notes.

    mpb’s last blog post..Tumblred week(s) of 2008apr11

  9. Jean Goronoff April 17, 2008 at 3:32 am #

    I haven’t received the invite. Jean

  10. zack_melayu April 17, 2008 at 4:14 am #

    Please let me have 1 invite, please…. thank you.

  11. K April 17, 2008 at 11:50 am #

    Topsurf, Mark, Ray.. sent you guys and invite yesterday!

    mpb.. Zotero is nice too but it just overwhelmed me with it’s features. Obviously I am not into research so it probably escapes me! 🙂 Sent you an invite just now.

    Zack.. you are welcome.. sent you my ninth invite!

    Jean.. not sure why but I sent it to you again. Hope you get it this time! 🙂

  12. David April 17, 2008 at 2:20 pm #

    Hey K, great article, really roused my interest in evernote. If you have anymore invites I would love to give it a try, thanks!

  13. Eddie April 17, 2008 at 4:32 pm #

    Hope I’m not too late, I’d love an invite. I should be able to spare 8 invites if they pass them on once registered. Cheers!

  14. REG April 17, 2008 at 9:03 pm #

    Im currently a OneNote and Google Notebook user…but I’ll give Evernote a shot…anyone with an xtra invite?

  15. Joy April 17, 2008 at 10:14 pm #

    That looks great! I’d love an invite if there’s a spare somewhere – I’d be happy to return more than one once I’ve registered. 🙂

  16. mpb April 17, 2008 at 10:38 pm #

    Zotero has advantages but as you say, a lot of features to work through. The other difficulty is using it in multi-tabbed Firefox on dial-up from the melting permafrost. Zotero doesn’t need to be on-line, but FF tends to freeze whenever the ice creaks (according to my ISP).

    Thanks for the invite. I could see a useful combination of the new Evernote with local Zotero.

    mpb’s last blog post..MRSA blog

  17. Jean Goronoff April 18, 2008 at 4:41 am #

    I still didn’t get it, that’s strange because I receive other email at this address without problems; please could you try this other address, thanks in advance Jean

  18. David April 18, 2008 at 3:30 pm #

    Thanks for the invite K. I have a couple to give away so if there are any that would like like one, please drop me a note @ evernote@mmxonline.net

  19. ~Kat~ April 19, 2008 at 12:15 am #

    This sounds really interesting. If anyone has an invite I would sure like one. I’d be happy to give back 5.

    ~Kat~’s last blog post..Last Minute Tax Tips

  20. Syahid A. April 19, 2008 at 2:34 am #

    Now you really know that EverNote is waaay…. better than Google Notebook. 😀

  21. Iain April 20, 2008 at 7:38 am #

    Very interesting article, thanks 🙂

    Would love an invite to try it out – if there’s one going spare!

  22. K1df0x May 13, 2008 at 10:34 pm #

    This sounds great. If anyone has invites to hand out, I would like one. Thanks.

  23. David May 15, 2008 at 3:44 am #

    I have 17 invites. If you would like one send an email to:
    evernote@mmxonline.net

  24. Zath May 19, 2008 at 4:51 pm #

    I really like the idea of this as I’m pretty unorganised when it comes to this kind of thing and have never tried Google Notebook yet.

    I’ve heard it mentioned on a couple of podcasts with the only down side being that it doesn’t offer encryption yet, but for day to day stuff this would be great!

    If anyone still has invites, I’d really appreciate one, cheers!

    Zaths last blog post..Free Tesco Mobile Sim Card

  25. linda November 10, 2008 at 1:29 am #

    Those note taking programs are such time savers. It might take some installation or setting changes but I’ve always found them to be useful.

    lindas last blog post..Hello to the Blogging World

  26. Matt Jabs January 9, 2009 at 12:09 pm #

    Have you been using this Karthik? Are you using it daily? Did you switch back to Google Notebook…or are you using neither? I’d like to know.

    Matt

    Matt Jabss last blog post..The M’Cheyne Daily Bible Reading Calendar & RSS Feed

  27. K January 9, 2009 at 3:11 pm #

    Hey Matt

    I am using it daily! I have never looked back at Google Notebook again after using Evernote. There is even a Windows client that syncs with the webapp making it extremely useful. I run this on Mozilla Prism as a standalone app in Linux so I can open/close anytime I need or have it open all day.

    They keep innovating and have become my own personal notebook! 🙂 I highly recommend Evernote!

  28. Tower Defense January 16, 2009 at 12:51 pm #

    Evernote has been my choice for the past few months. I was a huge fan of Google notebook but not more. Evernote just ripped out Google notebook. Thanks for the post.

  29. ltl January 20, 2009 at 1:28 am #

    Does something like evernote exist that does not need web access “Clouds”? Works without an internet ore registration and free.

  30. homepage optimieren January 24, 2009 at 10:27 pm #

    I recently came across Evernote and was quite surprised by its features. Google notebook is completely dwarfed By Evernote. I’m always on the move with my work and the sync capability of Evernote is just an awesome tool for me. Anyway, Thanks for the interesting article.

  31. Student Learning Disabilities January 26, 2009 at 11:03 pm #

    Great article. Evernote is my choice ever since I’ve been using online notebooks. I have never tried Google Note book. One of my friend recommended Evernote over Google. The comments and the article prove him correct i suppose. Evernote rocks. Great article.

    Student Learning Disabilitiess last blog post..Hello world!

  32. Cufflink Box January 28, 2009 at 12:17 am #

    Well, I have to hand it to you. Evernote has blown me away. I’ve been using Google note book for sometime but started using Evernote after reading this article few days back. It has just simply amazed me. Thanks for the post. Just thought to say a word. Cheers

  33. doodge January 28, 2009 at 9:07 am #

    I don’t think it’s better. Google Notebook has sharing (colaboration) feature. In evernote you can only make your notebook public.

    doodges last blog post..Popis antypiracki

  34. eatandstay.com February 2, 2009 at 10:44 pm #

    Evernote is one great piece of software. Love it in every way. Google Notebooks is fine but Evernote definitely wins. These softwares are always a big help when it comes to work. Be it Google or Evernote. Great review by the way. Cheers

  35. UK Online February 5, 2009 at 12:38 am #

    Evernote has been my choice for quite sometime now. I’m usually not a very organized person but Evernote has helped me in getting somewhat organized. especially my important stuff. Haven’t tried Google notebook but I can tell, Evernote is really really good.

  36. Paris Hotels February 14, 2009 at 3:06 am #

    Well yes, Evernote is good. And so is Google notebooks. I believe that both application are good for suitable people. I mean some will like Evernote because it assists them in their span f work. Some will like Google in their span of work. personally i like Google. As i don’t need any big stuff and because its simple.

  37. Fluke Ti10 Thermal Imager February 15, 2009 at 2:33 am #

    I still use Google notebook. I think Everbook is good too. Will definitely try it out. Thanks for sharing the information with us.

  38. LGA Limo February 21, 2009 at 10:41 pm #

    Evernote is a really good web application. But personally I like Google more for it’s simplicity. Also been a huge fan of Google. And Google not book suits me well. Anyway, thank you for the article.

  39. Nadeesha @ ROCKFUSE Blog Resources March 5, 2009 at 1:29 am #

    Personally I prefer Evernote over Google simply because of its syncing capacity. I am mostly on the go and the ability to sync between my pda,pc and online is really important for me. But I do like Google notebook too. Thanks for the information. Cheers

  40. K March 5, 2009 at 12:16 pm #

    Nadeesha, Google Notebook was nice but Evernote has made tremendous strides in this area and is clearly a winner right now. (Btw, KeywordLuv has been discontinued here)

  41. Race February 2, 2010 at 3:54 am #

    Try Pinoteo (www.pinoteo.com) – it’s a free digital board, but it can be used like alternative to OneNote and MindManager.

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