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This 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

by habosa 14y ago

This 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 ago
Lots 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 ago
  The 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 ago
    That'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 ago
    Who 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.
  - dannyr 14y ago
    30M is a fraction of the total mobile phone users. I could argue that it's possible that Evernote could get 100 million users if it's more more simple.
benackles 14y ago
Referring to something as minimal doesn't seem like a knock on the product. It's not just startups that follow lean methodologies. Google can create a minimal viable product too. In fact, this is exactly what they should do. Feature bloated products are terrible ways to launch.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  It's minimal, but I'm not sure it's viable.
  - benackles 14y ago
    After spending a few minutes using the product, I have to agree. It's a very minimal product, but it has extremely poor usability considering it's lack of options. I was only commenting on the expectation for more than a minimal product from Google.
  - benackles 14y ago
    After spending a few minutes using the product, I have to agree. It's a very minimal product, but it has extremely poor usability considering it's lack of options. I was only commenting on the expectation for more than a minimal product from Google.
dragonwriter 14y ago
> This is extremely minimal, I'd honestly expect more from a Google product. Given the fact that they are saying access from the Drive UI is coming soon, I suspect the release was rushed after the accidental leak. I wouldn't expect them to release a new Drive app when that requires a separate URL before its integrated into the Drive UI. OTOH, its not unheard of for Google to introduce a new service in a fairly minimal form and rapidly add features once it is deployed. So, that could be the plan (and, of course, both could be true -- this could be an ahead-of-schedule, and less-complete-than-planned deployment of something that was planned to be released in what would have been a fairly minimal form anyway.)
- sp332 14y ago
  Given the fact that they are saying access from the Drive UI is coming soon Do you have a link for that? I was wondering why it wasn't integrated better with the rest of Drive, and that would make sense.
  - dragonwriter 14y ago
    The official announcement: http://googledrive.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/google-keepsave-whats-on-your-mind.html http://googledrive.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/google-keepsave-w... Last sentence: "You can access, edit and create new notes on the web at http://drive.google.com/keep http://drive.google.com/keep and in the coming weeks you'll be able to do the same directly from Google Drive."
yen223 14y ago
"This is extremely minimal, I'd honestly expect more from a Google product." Off-topic, but does anyone remember the time when Google's UI consisted of just a textbox with their logo on a plain web page? And how they were getting tonnes of praise for that?

by habosa 14y ago

ok_craig 14y ago

Lots 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 ago
The 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 ago
  That'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 ago
  Who 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.
- dannyr 14y ago
  30M is a fraction of the total mobile phone users. I could argue that it's possible that Evernote could get 100 million users if it's more more simple.

benackles 14y ago

Referring to something as minimal doesn't seem like a knock on the product. It's not just startups that follow lean methodologies. Google can create a minimal viable product too. In fact, this is exactly what they should do. Feature bloated products are terrible ways to launch.

anigbrowl 14y ago
It's minimal, but I'm not sure it's viable.
- benackles 14y ago
  After spending a few minutes using the product, I have to agree. It's a very minimal product, but it has extremely poor usability considering it's lack of options. I was only commenting on the expectation for more than a minimal product from Google.
- benackles 14y ago
  After spending a few minutes using the product, I have to agree. It's a very minimal product, but it has extremely poor usability considering it's lack of options. I was only commenting on the expectation for more than a minimal product from Google.

dragonwriter 14y ago

> This is extremely minimal, I'd honestly expect more from a Google product. Given the fact that they are saying access from the Drive UI is coming soon, I suspect the release was rushed after the accidental leak. I wouldn't expect them to release a new Drive app when that requires a separate URL before its integrated into the Drive UI. OTOH, its not unheard of for Google to introduce a new service in a fairly minimal form and rapidly add features once it is deployed. So, that could be the plan (and, of course, both could be true -- this could be an ahead-of-schedule, and less-complete-than-planned deployment of something that was planned to be released in what would have been a fairly minimal form anyway.)

sp332 14y ago
Given the fact that they are saying access from the Drive UI is coming soon Do you have a link for that? I was wondering why it wasn't integrated better with the rest of Drive, and that would make sense.
- dragonwriter 14y ago
  The official announcement: http://googledrive.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/google-keepsave-whats-on-your-mind.html http://googledrive.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/google-keepsave-w... Last sentence: "You can access, edit and create new notes on the web at http://drive.google.com/keep http://drive.google.com/keep and in the coming weeks you'll be able to do the same directly from Google Drive."

yen223 14y ago

"This is extremely minimal, I'd honestly expect more from a Google product." Off-topic, but does anyone remember the time when Google's UI consisted of just a textbox with their logo on a plain web page? And how they were getting tonnes of praise for that?