Google Keep Is Google’s Evernote Clone

20 responses to “Google Keep Is Google’s Evernote Clone”

1. 

   davedrastic

   March 21, 2013

   I still don’t know what Drive is. Or many of Googles other offerings. Maybe now’s the time to start finding out.

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   1. 

      grayda

      March 21, 2013

      Drive is fantastic. It’s basically a cloud version of Microsoft Office (before Microsoft had their offering). I’ve put together a few presentations on it, and for ‘wherever you are’ editing of files, it’s rather good.

      Still doesn’t beat a desktop version, but it was enough for me to put together a 100 slide presentation for a local sports group.

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      1. 

         davedrastic

         March 21, 2013

         Is it a good alternative to MS Word and MS Excel – I use them all day every day and would require complete compatibility with them. Also, is there a cost involved.? I thought that some of Googles cloud services had a free trial but that they’ve recently stopped the free-ness.

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         1. 

            paaj

            April 8, 2013

            depends on the complexity of your work. Google Drive and Skydrive (Microsoft) is a good web alternative for basic spreadsheets or word documents.

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2. 

   johmes

   March 21, 2013

   Google had a great product a few years back called Notebook – basically did what Evernote does now. But, Google killed it off, and oh now look, they want to bring it back from the dead in a slightly different form.
   I liked Notebook and used it a lot, but am now hooked on Evernote. Don’t think I will be giving Keep a whirl.
   First Notebook, now Reader is dying a cruel death. Thanks Google!

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   1. 

      JoeSchmoe

      March 22, 2013

      Google killed off not only Notebook and Reader, but iGoogle too (not to mention less successful products like Google Wave, Google Buzz, Google Health). I used iGoogle and Reader and, honestly, Google is starting to make me a little gun shy of their offerings. Maybe if Keep is still around in five years I might consider it.

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      1. 

         april

         March 22, 2013

         I loved iGoogle!

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3. 

   tricache

   March 21, 2013

   So get rid of a perfectly good service (Reader) and introduce a service which is already has perfectly good working software…

   Go home Google, you drunk

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4. 

   rdvrk

   March 21, 2013

   I was as disappointed as anyone to hear about Google Reader shutting down, but seriously, this whole ‘Google doesn’t think we need an RSS reader so everything else they bring out from now on is stupid’ attitude is pretty reductive.

   I’ve been using OneNote because it came with Office but have never been super happy with it, and Evernote has always just seemed like a messier version of the same thing (I know, I’ve probably been using it wrong). I’ll give Keep a go.

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   1. 

      khendar

      March 21, 2013

      I think its more a matter of people like myself preferring not to invest time in learning and utilising a product when there is every chance that they will drop it in the future. I’m a fan of Google’s products but having been stung before (Notebook, Reader, Wave) I’m hesitant to migrate to something new at the risk of losing everything (or having to move it to another service) when they kill the product.

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      1. 

         rdvrk

         March 21, 2013

         Sure, but how is that any different to every other web service? What’s to say Evernote will be around forever, or Spotify, or Dropbox? It’s kind of like saying you’ll never buy a Sony product ever again because they discontinued the cassette Walkman, or you’ll never buy another Android phone because one day it will stop receiving OS updates.

         Like I said, I’m sad to see Reader go as well, but ultimately I wasn’t paying anything for it and so can’t really claim any ownership over the ‘product’. And really, 4 months’ notice is better than you’ll get from a lot of companies.

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         1. 

            kato

            March 21, 2013

            Because Evernote is Evernote’s key service. It has paid subscribers. If Evernote goes under then it will not by choice. Google on the other hand has been choosing to discontinue these free services because, presumably, they are not profitable (cost to support versus ad revenue?). Abandonment is now a very real label being aimed at Google and I’m surprised more tech authors aren’t covering it – we are seeing it here in the comments. People are not keen to commit to a new Google product now even if it is unique, and are much less so when it competes with already established products for fear of Google yanking the product in a few years. Oh and your Sony Walkman analogy shows you completely fail to understand the situation. I have a Walkman from the 80’s and while I can’t buy a replacement, I can still use it to play tapes. Good luck using Reader in 5 months.

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            1. 

               rdvrk

               March 21, 2013

               Okay, fine, the Walkman analogy was a tad off – you paid for a product which you now own and can continue to use for as long as you see fit. Cool. This is not the case, however, with a “service” like Google Reader.

               If Google does keep yanking popular products for no real reason then they deserve all the bad publicity they get – but because of this, it’s in their best interests generally not to do so. My original point was that if you refuse to use a new product (especially a free one) simply because it ‘might’ not be around forever, then you probably shouldn’t be using the internet.

5. 

   bill gates

   March 21, 2013

   I won’t be using this. I was a big user of Google Notebook when it came out, then google killed it. I won’t be sucked into being another beta tester for yet another product which may die. And them killing Reader because they wanted us to move onto their Google+ product was the last straw for me – they really aren’t the nice guys that they pretend to be. I’m voting with my feet – now using duckduckgo.com as a search engine as it doesn’t track me (like Google does).

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6. 

   seeknowevil

   March 21, 2013

   Google “keep” reader.

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7. 

   r3v4n

   March 21, 2013

   Keep sounds like a great idea, I like using one simple account for everything, so I welcome this.

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8. 

   foxesforsale

   March 21, 2013

   As someone that never really got to “click” well with Evernote, I’m enjoying Keep so far. It’s simple enough to be exactly what I want. It irritated me how slow Evernote was on anything besides my phone…

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9. 

   grayda

   March 21, 2013

   I do love Evernote, but I do also love having all my eggs in Google’s basket (one less password to remember and one less app on my homescreen). Plus if their offering is better than Evernote’s basic plan, I’ll give it a whirl.

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10. 

    trent

    March 21, 2013

    I, like many others, use to use Google NoteBook, before being forced to migrate to Evernote.

    This announcement is salt in the wound of Reader being killed off. At least Google may relaunch it in a few years with a new name? By then it will be too late, as I will find an alternative that is reliable.
    I am currently shopping round to find a complete replacement to Google docs as well, the less Eggs in the Google basket the better.

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11. 

    juice

    March 22, 2013

    I’ll stick with Evernote. Wave, Buzz, etc. – Google is developing a reputation for ditching stuff that isn’t making them money (not blaming them for that) but this is a fair chance of going the same way, IMHO.

    Because they’re so big they’ve got no real incentive to have to make stuff work, as they would if they were a startup/smaller, so they throw stuff like this against the wall and if it sticks, all well and good, but if it falls off, or starts to slide at some later date, too bad.

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