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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April 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I would love to have an invite and can share it with 5 people thank you!
April 16th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
thanks if you can send me an invite; I’ll give all the invite I get.
April 16th, 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!
April 16th, 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.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I would love to try this! I will invite too! Thanks!
April 16th, 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.
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April 16th, 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.
April 17th, 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.
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April 17th, 2008 at 3:32 am
I haven’t received the invite. Jean
April 17th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Please let me have 1 invite, please…. thank you.
April 17th, 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!
April 17th, 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!
April 17th, 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!
April 17th, 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?
April 17th, 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.
April 17th, 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.
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April 18th, 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
April 18th, 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
April 19th, 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.
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April 19th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Now you really know that EverNote is waaay…. better than Google Notebook.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Very interesting article, thanks
Would love an invite to try it out - if there’s one going spare!
May 13th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
This sounds great. If anyone has invites to hand out, I would like one. Thanks.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:44 am
I have 17 invites. If you would like one send an email to:
evernote@mmxonline.net
May 19th, 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!
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