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The problem with evernote is not too many features. The problem is the crap architecture behind its synchronization model that leads to a sub-par user experien

The problem with evernote is not too many features. The problem is the crap architecture behind its synchronization model that leads to a sub-par user experience. Often times on iPhone it only syncs new hyperlinks added after I explicitly open the app. The thing has no proper handling of simultaneous edits on different devices - leading to conflicts - after all these years with so many programmers there's still no merging algorithm. The versioning is based on taking snapshots every couple of hours last time I checked. For real??! Is this the best a billion dollar company can do? There monetization strategy is not coherently supported by their product implementation. If business use and collaboration is what they aim to monetize - why such weak and limited features for that? (Sharing notes are very basic, again the poor handling of simultaneous edits...) Apple is mentioned as another company with many products - but the overwhelming majority of both specific products and specific features work really well. The same goes for Google. These companies don't have to cover up for poor 5-10 strategy by pretending they are working of some mystical 100 year plan.

quanticle 11y ago
Hear hear. What finally prompted me to switch from Evernote to Workflowy (even though Workflowy has maybe 1% of the features that Evernote does) was that when I opened the Workflowy app on my phone, I could be assured that I would see exactly what I'd finished entering on my computer, even if I'd only entered it a few seconds ago. Heck, I can enter stuff on my computer and watch my phone update in almost real time. When I first saw Workflowy's synchronization, coming from Evernote, it seemed almost magical.
porker 11y ago
> The problem is the crap architecture behind its synchronization model that leads to a sub-par user experience. One 'bug' that's been present since I started using Evernote: Create a new note, paste content, start typing a title, pause, and have it wipe out the title with part of the content or move your cursor to the start of the title.
volaski 11y ago
What you mention indeed is a problem for its core users who already use Evernote. However "too many features"--each of which is mediocre--is a much larger problem. I remember trying to use and like Evernote multiple times through its evolution and not really sticking because there wasn't a single feature that was uniquely superior. Why use Evernote for saving to read later when Instapaper or Pocket do much better job? Why use Evernote to keep todo lists when there are tons of other Todo specific apps that do much better job? etc.
morgante 11y ago
I think the poor architecture is a direct result of there being too many features. Evernote has shoved so many features into the product that they haven't been able to sufficiently hone individual features. This leaves them open to competitors who focus on a subset of features but do a much better job of implementing those features. Apple and Google get around this in different ways. While Apple has a broad set of products and features, they're pretty conservative in their pace of releasing new features. So they have plenty of time to hone and integrate new ones. Google seems to have solved this through radical decentralization. They don't really require that different products form an integrated whole. This allows individual teams to focus on delivering high-quality products without the architectural overhead of bundling everything into one product.
- sitkack 11y ago
  Only if synchronization is ad hoc. The world will no longer tolerate throwing another switch and gauge on panel and calling it good.
- eitally 11y ago
  Perhaps ironically, Evernote alienated thousands of power users when they did their big 2.2-->3.0 rewrite a few years ago. Evernote 2.2 on desktop (+ the browser extension) was tremendously awesome, and then they rewrote the whole thing in .Net and basically made the desktop client a webview, in the process removing about 90% of the features people loved while causing all the sync and stability problems people are still complaining about. I want to love Evernote because having a centralized, cross-platform, easily searchable repository for both binary content and text is hugely powerful, and there aren't really any viable competitors in this space. But, I don't trust the company and I don't trust the product, so I won't use it, and I'll stick with several different other products that together mostly fill the same use cases for me. One of those is Google Drive, but it's even clunkier than Evernote (although sync works great!).
  - damian2000 11y ago
    They fell into the big rewrite trap ... possibly driven by developers hoping to clear out some cruft http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html
gotofritz 11y ago
We could say the CAUSE of the problem is too many features, because makes them unable to solve the most important problems. I have never experienced the problem you describe, but the lack of decent search functionality bothers me.
baldfat 11y ago
> Apple is mentioned as another company with many products - but the overwhelming majority of both specific products and specific features work really well. Really I find their software to be hazardous to my health. I am okay with people liking their hardware but their software and services makes me frustrated 90% of the time.
- cauthon 11y ago
  > their software and services makes me frustrated 90% of the time. And the other 10% is spent in Keynote. Seriously, Keynote is excellent, but Mail is the only other Apple-made app I use, and that's only because I haven't found a better Mac mail client that works with Exchange.
  - DonHopkins 11y ago
    Apple Computer's "Lemonade Stand" [1] was pretty good educational software for learning how to run a small business, while mitigating the consequences of global warming. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dUbDDmXp2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dUbDDmXp2I
  - jkmcf 11y ago
    http://airmailapp.com/ http://airmailapp.com/ I’ve been using it for years now, and it is fantastic. I do use the beta versions, but I’ve experience very few problems.
  - Haul4ss 11y ago
    Outlook 2016? It's a huge improvement over previous Outlook iterations for OS X.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
johnchristopher 11y ago
Have you tried Onenote ? How does it compare ?

quanticle 11y ago

Hear hear. What finally prompted me to switch from Evernote to Workflowy (even though Workflowy has maybe 1% of the features that Evernote does) was that when I opened the Workflowy app on my phone, I could be assured that I would see exactly what I'd finished entering on my computer, even if I'd only entered it a few seconds ago. Heck, I can enter stuff on my computer and watch my phone update in almost real time. When I first saw Workflowy's synchronization, coming from Evernote, it seemed almost magical.

porker 11y ago

> The problem is the crap architecture behind its synchronization model that leads to a sub-par user experience. One 'bug' that's been present since I started using Evernote: Create a new note, paste content, start typing a title, pause, and have it wipe out the title with part of the content or move your cursor to the start of the title.

volaski 11y ago

What you mention indeed is a problem for its core users who already use Evernote. However "too many features"--each of which is mediocre--is a much larger problem. I remember trying to use and like Evernote multiple times through its evolution and not really sticking because there wasn't a single feature that was uniquely superior. Why use Evernote for saving to read later when Instapaper or Pocket do much better job? Why use Evernote to keep todo lists when there are tons of other Todo specific apps that do much better job? etc.

morgante 11y ago

I think the poor architecture is a direct result of there being too many features. Evernote has shoved so many features into the product that they haven't been able to sufficiently hone individual features. This leaves them open to competitors who focus on a subset of features but do a much better job of implementing those features. Apple and Google get around this in different ways. While Apple has a broad set of products and features, they're pretty conservative in their pace of releasing new features. So they have plenty of time to hone and integrate new ones. Google seems to have solved this through radical decentralization. They don't really require that different products form an integrated whole. This allows individual teams to focus on delivering high-quality products without the architectural overhead of bundling everything into one product.

sitkack 11y ago
Only if synchronization is ad hoc. The world will no longer tolerate throwing another switch and gauge on panel and calling it good.
eitally 11y ago
Perhaps ironically, Evernote alienated thousands of power users when they did their big 2.2-->3.0 rewrite a few years ago. Evernote 2.2 on desktop (+ the browser extension) was tremendously awesome, and then they rewrote the whole thing in .Net and basically made the desktop client a webview, in the process removing about 90% of the features people loved while causing all the sync and stability problems people are still complaining about. I want to love Evernote because having a centralized, cross-platform, easily searchable repository for both binary content and text is hugely powerful, and there aren't really any viable competitors in this space. But, I don't trust the company and I don't trust the product, so I won't use it, and I'll stick with several different other products that together mostly fill the same use cases for me. One of those is Google Drive, but it's even clunkier than Evernote (although sync works great!).
- damian2000 11y ago
  They fell into the big rewrite trap ... possibly driven by developers hoping to clear out some cruft http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html

gotofritz 11y ago

We could say the CAUSE of the problem is too many features, because makes them unable to solve the most important problems. I have never experienced the problem you describe, but the lack of decent search functionality bothers me.

baldfat 11y ago

> Apple is mentioned as another company with many products - but the overwhelming majority of both specific products and specific features work really well. Really I find their software to be hazardous to my health. I am okay with people liking their hardware but their software and services makes me frustrated 90% of the time.

cauthon 11y ago
> their software and services makes me frustrated 90% of the time. And the other 10% is spent in Keynote. Seriously, Keynote is excellent, but Mail is the only other Apple-made app I use, and that's only because I haven't found a better Mac mail client that works with Exchange.
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  Apple Computer's "Lemonade Stand" [1] was pretty good educational software for learning how to run a small business, while mitigating the consequences of global warming. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dUbDDmXp2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dUbDDmXp2I
- jkmcf 11y ago
  http://airmailapp.com/ http://airmailapp.com/ I’ve been using it for years now, and it is fantastic. I do use the beta versions, but I’ve experience very few problems.
- Haul4ss 11y ago
  Outlook 2016? It's a huge improvement over previous Outlook iterations for OS X.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

johnchristopher 11y ago

Have you tried Onenote ? How does it compare ?