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Google Keep
- chriscampbell 14y agoGoogle has just released an Evernote competitor called Google Keep.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- evan_ 14y agoThey killed Google Notebook a couple years ago. I don't know why I should trust this one. Pretty ballsy to call it "keep", bloggers can start drafting their "Google Loses Keep" headlines now.
- webwanderings 14y agoYou should trust them as long as the people behind this app are working for Google. It is apparently obvious that Google as a company stays above its products and people. When people leave, the product pretty much goes with them. Unless of course you have built a cash cow like Gmail or other Ads generating mechanism. Also exempt are your Glasses, self-driving cars and etc.
- saraid216 14y ago> Also exempt are your Glasses, self-driving cars and etc. Are they? The press thus far has sort of focused pretty heavily on Thrun. If he were to walk away from Google, I wonder what would actually happen.
- webwanderings 14y agoWell, my reference is to post-Kinect world of Microsoft in particular and the world at large in general. It seems every other big IT corporation is looking to keep one or two of their larger-than-life futuristic product at the top of the shelf as sort of a promise to the humanity. So there is no chance that they will let go of those inventions so easily so soon. The rest of the tiny everyday products, well, you have Google Webstore for those where millions of others are keeping company.
- lopatin 14y agoData from Google Notebook wasn't lost, just transfered over to Google Docs.
- evan_ 14y agoWell, that's true, and to Google's immense credit they're very good about letting go of data- I was referring more to losing the product itself.
- smokinjoe 14y agoThe product wasn't great. I used it quite extensively (I didn't know of any other services) and it was filled with problems with layouts and pasting with styles. While I wasn't thrilled to see it go, it shouldn't have been that huge of a shock to anyone. If anything, the best features from Google Notebook have made their way into Google Drive.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jsnk 14y agoI keep getting error popup. Anyone else getting this in FF?
- sp332 14y agoYeah, it worked for a few seconds and now it won't load in any of my computers, even in Chrome.
- eterps 14y agoSame problem in Chromium
- stringham 14y agoI'm getting it in Chrome as well.
- jclos 14y agoThe popup is gone for me, now it works perfectly EDIT: now it's back to the popup... There wasn't anything particularly exciting anyway.
- masonhensley 14y agoScreenshots for y'all, it has a list view and a thumbnail view. You can add pictures and tag with a couple basic colors. http://awesomescreenshot.com/08d12lg0d3 http://awesomescreenshot.com/08d12lg0d3 http://awesomescreenshot.com/00b12lfvea http://awesomescreenshot.com/00b12lfvea
- Intermediate 14y agoNo, thanks. I'll keep out of any new google services
- jayfuerstenberg 14y agoI'm also looking to support some file syncing services in my new iOS/Mac app and as technically interesting as Google Drive SDK looks I think I can trust Dropbox a lot more.
- forgetcolor 14y agountil they change their minds and it becomes google lose
- larrywright 14y agoI used Google Notebook fairly heavily, but they discontinued it. I love (and pay for) Evernote now, which has lots of great integrations with other products. Why would I trust Google again?
- dragonwriter 14y ago> I used Google Notebook fairly heavily, but they discontinued it. I love (and pay for) Evernote now, which has lots of great integrations with other products. Why would I trust Google again? Given that you need a Google Account to use this, and it is a new component of Google Drive, I don't think its really about winning back people who have rage-quit Google over the discontinuation of Google Notebook (or Google Reader, for that matter.)
- ChuckMcM 14y agoI read the grandparent comment as more of a "We don't trust you, therefore we won't invest in your new service, therefore you won't get the use out of it you expect, therefore you will kill it, and the prophecy is fulfilled." Google is doing something which I didn't think was possible, which is to teach a vast marketplace that "free" isn't real. I've had the conversation with lots of people about how free services are unsustainable because they incur real costs, and like a ponzi scheme you run out of suckers eventually who are willing to put in new money. And yet if you're collecting new users then there is some "value" there. But like shale oil of old, if you can't convert the 'value' into cash to fund operations, its not worth anything. Google is in a unique position to train the billions of Internet users that you want something, you pay for it, if you aren't paying for it, it goes away at any time. So when the person running the 'free' service says 'time to pay up' you don't complain, you either pay or do without. That was an impossible conversation to have during Web 1.0, it's being forced on Web 2.0, and I expect will be the foundation of Web 3.0.
- tomkarlo 14y agoThere are lots of free services that are sustainable, because the cost of delivering them is less than the amount they earn through advertising or premium users. There's no ponzi scheme aspect to that. (Google Search, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) Even if you're paying for something, it can still go away. There have been lots of paid services that failed, both online and offline. (Kozmo.com, Saab, Webvan, Hostess, etc) There are sustainable free services, and there are unsustainable paid services, and often companies don't know what category a product falls into until years after it's been released.
- dz0ny 14y agoAndroid app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... everything works, but recording(crashes app).
- bane 14y agothis makes a lot more sense to me than the web app. I'm usually in need of a quick dictation tool that I can sync with my home pc everyday.
- habosa 14y agoThis is extremely minimal, I'd honestly expect more from a Google product. There's not even a tutorial or anything. Also why are there not any text formatting options? I'd love a real Google Evernote competitor but this is not even in the same league. Am I missing something, or is this just neutered Google Drive?
- ok_craig 14y agoLots of people, including myself, feel that Evernote is overly complex and not enjoyable to use. I've always wanted a simple app that lets me sync basic text notes across devices. All the ones I've been able to find have something off about them, whether it be interface, lack of sync, complexity, or other annoyance. I find Keep to actually be quite nice, and it fits my needs. I assume there are others for whom this is also true. Edit: I guess you could say Google's Evernote competitor is just Google Drive itself. If you want text formatting, create an actual Doc. Keep seems to be explicitly for short-form, simple note taking. I think there's a large market for that.
- taligent 14y agoThe plural of anecdote is not data. The facts are that Evernote has in excess of 30M users, with lots of paying users and growing rapidly. There is no evidence that this mythical complexity is affecting adoption. And I don't see how Google Drive and Evernote are competition. Very different use cases.
- ok_craig 14y agoThat's why I said "I assume." Also, Evernote being successful does not actually counter my point. That people are using it and that it's growing does not mean there isn't a separate or overlapping set of users who want something simpler.
- magicalist 14y agoWho are you even talking to? The post you replied to just made an argument for why this would be a viable product for some people, which is exactly what the topmost post asked for opinions on. The only possible phrase that could be construed as needing "data" to back it up is "lots of people" being unsatisfied with evernote's complexity (which is not a statement about that affecting evernote's adoption, incidentally), and it's a statement that could arguably be satisfied with an anecdote in any case. You pulled the trigger on the negativity gun a little early here, even for you.
- j2kun 14y agoJust after killing Google Reader, and you think you can get me back so easily?
- ocean12 14y agoPaul Thurrott: "You start using it, I'll start my countdown to the service's death." https://twitter.com/thurrott/status/314476511497445376 https://twitter.com/thurrott/status/314476511497445376
- humbledrone 14y agoWhere does the countdown start? At nearly 8 years, which is the lifespan of Google Reader? How many other free services on the web lasted that long [1]? I'm an avid Reader user. I'm terribly sad to see it go, but I appreciate the value I've gotten out of it while it existed. Plenty of web services -- maybe most -- die after a while. Maybe the company offering it goes under, maybe nobody uses it, or maybe it's just not accomplishing the goals the company set out for it (ahem, Reader). In any case, 8 years _has_ to be higher than the average lifespan [1]. So I assert that even if you assume every new Google service will be killed in 8 years, you're still better off choosing them (from a longevity perspective). [1] I would absolutely _love_ to see some data about average web service lifespans. I suspect that it is actually quite low. I also suspect that Google has a much better track record than the industry (again, on average).
- ed2417 14y agoI think Google has chased away the early adopter, free evangelists.
- smokinjoe 14y agoI would hope that early adopters know the risks of early adoption.
- dvncan 14y agowhy are the css classes so funky? (e.g. class="TUdKmf-xhiy4-haAclf h1U9Be-xhiy4-qAWA2"). Are they randomly generated? what's the purpose?
- pspeter3 14y agoThat's true for all of their stuff. Look at GMail
- xymostech 14y agoIt looks to me like they're just obfuscated words. If you look at one of the hierarchies, you see "TUdKmf-xhiy4-haAclf", then "TUdKmf-xhiy4-DKlKme-haAclf", then "TUdKmf-xhiy4". Seems like they're just taking a normal class like "note-body-wrapper" and "note-body" and obfuscating it.
- darkstar999 14y agoWhat's the purpose of obfuscating css?
- shrikant 14y agoMake it harder to use userscripts for custom styling..?
- est 14y agoI think it's auto generated from GWT?
- dvncan 14y agowhy are the css classes so funky? (e.g. class="TUdKmf-xhiy4-haAclf h1U9Be-xhiy4-qAWA2"). Are they randomly generated? what's the purpose?
- bicknergseng 14y agoSo many "they killed reader how can I ever trust Google again" comments. As if everything ever has been permanent and Evernote will outlast humanity. It's a minimal todo list for godsakes.
- taligent 14y agoEvernote is a very successful company with a successful business model and whilst I don't expect them to outlast humanity I do expect at least a few years. Google has a well established record now for abandoning projects. Especially those that are free.
- cromwellian 14y agoLet's get some perspective here: Google Reader ran for 8 years, far outlasting the majority of Web sites and Apps launched in that time. Evernote has only been around since 2008, where will it be in its 8th year of life? What happens if Apple builds a really great Evernote competitor into Siri? With the attitude expressed in the comments here, one should never ever use any startup's new product, because 99% of them will fail, and they probably won't have anything like Google Takeout to help you migrate before they are shutdown.
- pseut 14y agoThere's a difference between "use" and "rely on," and I think one would have to be a fool to not factor in a startup's viability (as best as possible) when deciding whether or not to integrate its product into one's workflow. If you use dropbox, do you use it the same way now as you did when it was in beta? Or do you trust it more now? If you don't use dropbox, I'm sure you can think of similar examples that make the same point. For various reasons (that have nothing to do with their viability as a company) I don't use Evernote and didn't use reader and I'm not going to use keep. But I think it's fair to consider google's track record with similar products over the last decade when debating whether or not to use keep.
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- nlawalker 14y agoPutting aside snarky sentiments about its inevitable shutdown: pretty neat, although as others have stated, it seems a little too minimal. I imagine if your life is already on Drive that this could be pretty useful. I especially like the Android lock screen widget that lets you add stuff directly from the phone (mentioned on their blog) Regardless of the product you use, searchable cloud-synced notes that you can quickly access are a life changer, even if they're just text files. It's like direct memory augmentation; I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to have it. "The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory" and all that. The trick is to make a workflow for yourself that allows for writing stuff down now and finding/organizing it later. I find OneNote + SkyDrive works pretty well - it ties you to the proprietary OneNote format, but the features you get from it are powerful, and as long as you have the client software and a place to put the files (preferably on the web), no one can "shut the service down". Perhaps I'll give this one a try though.
- ocean12 14y agoIt's only Android 4 and higher. Awful.
- jamesaguilar 14y agoDid Android even have lockscreen widgets before 4? I thought there were only third party lockscreens with widgets before then. It would seem that they were released in 4.2: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.2.html http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.2.html
- philsheard 14y agoAnyone know whether this is an innovative use of lockscreen widgets by Google, or is this something that's not openly available to other Android devs? Wondering whether is just a clever app by Google or something that makes it difficult for Evernote et al to compete.
- jamesaguilar 14y ago
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Metapony 14y agoI'm very surprised that they rolled this out without the "sharing" features baked into Google Drive already. You can publish the contents of a spreadsheet, but you can't get at these notes. I know the announcement says a feature like this is coming in a few weeks, but why didn't they just withhold the launch until it's more mature? I mean, who is going to early adopt something so crippled? There seems to be such a lack of focus from Google lately, and I'm not trying to hop on the bandwagon. But they could have rolled this out with the share features already found in Google Drive.
- medell 14y agoWhere does this fit in with the forgotten Google Tasks, if at all? (Tasks is hidden under the "Gmail" drop-down). http://gmailblog.blogspot.ca/2011/01/top-tasks-for-google-tasks.html http://gmailblog.blogspot.ca/2011/01/top-tasks-for-google-ta...
- cdi 14y agoGoogle is scary. Soon Google will achieve semi monopoly in its ability to develop certain kinds of advanced machine learning / AI and analyze human behavior, due to exclusive access to vast amounts of data. I would prefer crucial advances in these disciplines to be described in detail in publicly available papers, with open implementation, by academic researchers, rather than outlined in announcement and mostly closed/proprietary, for the benefit of shareholders. Evernote-like data is certainly a good addition. Google Glass is even scarier -- the ultimate tool for behavior analysis.
- devindotcom 14y agoLooks nice, but I'm gonna hang onto SimpleNote, thanks.
- fatjokes 14y agoI would love this if I could make it my Chrome start screen.
- threepipeproblm 14y agoHa like I will ever enter into dependence on another Google app.
- foxylad 14y agoI'd love to know how you posted that comment, then. Because if you've stopped using anything from Google because they ditched Reader, presumably you've also sworn off all Microsoft products (they killed Clippy!), anything from Apple (R.I.P. QuickDraw 3D), Ubuntu (oh Gnome2, how I loved thee)... And you won't be using any internet provider since they ditched gopher, or dial-up over the phone service because the bastards discontinued telex. Or maybe you could admit that you're over-reacting slightly?
- bebna 14y agoU can't get gopher over your ISP? Thats a new one!
- threepipeproblm 14y agoI suppose that would make follow if you interpreted my comment in the most uncharitable way. Microsoft used to be known for bending over backwards to maintain "backwards' compatibility. Or used to be... I am in the process of moving away from MS. They still don't kill products with millions of active users for political reasons (http://macsparky.com/blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse http://macsparky.com/blog/2013/3/the-rss-apocalypse) as far as I know. But I was really referencing that I have no longer have any more desire to depend on a free product (i.e. where I "am the product"), and put myself at the mercy Google's increasing fickleness over what constitutes a viable following.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mindstab 14y agoWarren Ellis: Dear Google: why launch Google Keep when you've just proven you'll shut off productivity services when you get bored with maintaining them? https://twitter.com/warrenellis/status/314493398138630145 https://twitter.com/warrenellis/status/314493398138630145
- gpjt 14y agoPrecisely. I'd thought of building something like this for my own use last autumn, and ironically actually started building it over the weekend[1] (GF away for the week). When I was young and naive, reading that one of the big boys was getting into the space where I'd just started a project would have scared me off and I'd have abandoned it. In recent, more clued-up years I'd have thought "ah, market validation!" and ramped up my development effort. Now, in the light of the Reader abandonment, it's more like a feeling of joy that Google will educate the world about how great an idea this is, and then abandon it just about when I have something that other people might actually want to use. [1] http://blog.memostream.com/2013/03/19/hello-world/ http://blog.memostream.com/2013/03/19/hello-world/
- dragonwriter 14y ago> Now, in the light of the Reader abandonment, it's more like a feeling of joy that Google will educate the world about how great an idea this is, and then abandon it just about when I have something that other people might actually want to use. Drive, while also available for free, part of the core of the paid Google Apps offering, and its (as the parallel to OneNote) a key part of Google Apps being an alternative to Microsoft Office (and, consequently, to ChromeOS with Google Apps being an alternative to Windows with Microsoft Office). Its hardly positioned similarly to Reader which, however popular it may have been with a segment that is overrepresented among active participants of online forums focussed on technology, was pretty distant from any core strategic focus for Google. So, I wouldn't bank on Google canceling this any time soon (or even in 8 years, as happened with Reader.)
- gpjt 14y agoYou may be right -- possibly I'm overcompensating for my earlier worries. Still, if the worst comes to the worst it'll still be an interesting project.
- k-mcgrady 14y agoIt's nice but I expected more from Google. If a new startup launched this product it wouldn't get any press. Why should I use this when there are already similar options (Simple Note) and ones which have many more features (Evernote)?
- Nightrider 14y agoI use OneNote already. It works beautifully because I can also add attachments and images. Think Word + Evernote.
- l0c0b0x 14y agoGuys!... this is obviously an early April fools Google site, mistakenly released early.
- pasbesoin 14y agoWaiting on Google Discard.
- jayfuerstenberg 14y agoIt sounds like something Google would actually do. Like a black hole service for making objectionable internet material just vanish, never to be reachable again when logged into your Google account. I'd add " https://drive.google.com/keep/ https://drive.google.com/keep/ " to it.
- unhe 14y agoeverything from google is a living dead
- bane 14y agoWhat is this? Posterus again? this reminds me, I need to get all my crap out of docs/drive whatever before that gets shut down
- jrajav 14y agoI facepalmed when I saw that Google omitted a feature that they also left out of Tasks, even though this application clearly has a lot more energy and drive behind it - labeling / tagging. It's such a simple, unobtrusive, and elegant feature that there really isn't an excuse to exclude it, given the enormous benefits it adds to any kind of note-taking or organization application. It instantly allows the user to implement any kind of organization system, from haphazard brain-dumping all the way up to GTD. And it doesn't take a lot. You don't even have to clutter up your pristine, trendy flat UI with labels displayed over everything - just allow the user to 1) Add any number of labels to a note (They don't even have to be displayed anywhere, except maybe an out-of-the-way Labels dialog) 2) Filter the list of notes based on one label. That's all! That's not so bad, is it? This is also the one, single feature that could have allowed this to immediately and effectively compete with Evernote.
- Flenser 14y agoAll they really need is a way to bookmark searches. Then labels can be whatever system the user wants, #hashtags, @gtd_contexts, :whatever: