User:Anthony Salvagno/Notebook/Research/2010/03/26/More Online Notebook Choices

I found a link to the most used online notetaking apps and I want to check out the top group (pretty much everything down to Zoho Notebook). Here is the link. I will include findings below.

Findings
I'm sure most of these will be very similar or the same. So I'll record only things that are different from the other applications, based on what I've seen from Snaptic and Evernote. BTW, after using 3banana a little yesterday I think Evernote is still better. It has the ability to record audio, take pictures, and take notes. 3banana can do notes, but I think I have to manually paste a picture in my notes. I also don't have the ability to make new notebooks like I do in Evernote. So Evernote wins.

ClipMarks
This seems like Digg. You "clip" things and people give you pops if they like it. Seems stupid.

Cool Feature: Ripoff of Digg.

Yahoo Notepad
Simple note taker. Looks like it is just text based. Can also organize notes by folders. It seems pretty gay especially since you can't even share your notes. I'm let down by Yahoo's offering.

Cool Feature: None.

Evernote
We all know what this can do. This is the app to beat (outside of Zoho Notes). Although since Zoho can integrate RSS feeds, I can incorporate anything from Evernote into my Zoho notes. So I'd say they are pretty seamless together. Also Zoho doesn't have a phone app so I'd need Evernote for out of office notes (like images and stuff).

'''Cool Feature: Take audio and image notes. Very easy to use.'''

Diigo
Diigo isn't really a note taking tool. I mean it is in a way, but it isn't a traditional tool like OWW or Evernote. Diigo lets you annotate web pages and organize annotations, bookmarks, etc. One of the coolest features is the ability to highlight parts of a web page that stick out to you and add a sticky note to that highlight. I'm sure you can add a note anywhere you want as well. Also you can collaborate on your bookmarks and annotations. This seems really promising.

Cool Feature: Highlight and annotate web pages.

Springpad
Looks useful but limited. A lot of people use it for recipes it looks like. You can add links as notes and Springpad will compile useful information by itself. The iPhone app allows you to store information by picture, location, and barcode. Pretty neat. I don't think it's quite what we need though. You can also schedule reminders through it. The best part of the splash page is the introduction video. It pops up and looks very aesthetically pleasing. I want to make that.

Cool Feature: Store info by location and barcode.

Remember the milk
This is kinda like Springpad, but more task oriented then the stuff springpad offers. It seems very cool, has an Android App and iPhone app, allows integration with Google Calendar and Google Tasks, and allows you to share tasks. You can also get reminders sent to your phone or email (not very surprising as I think this should be standard now a days).

Cool Feature: You can look at tasks by location (ie tasks on google map).

Backpack
Very lame. They charge a lot for things that Google and Zoho offer for free. Its more of a business collaboration app.

Cool Feature: Nothing.

Toodledo
This looks like a top notch task system. There are so many awesome features. I definitely think I need a task manager to keep me focused and I will pick one of the options I find here. Some features include creating tasks, notes, organization (by priority, time estimates, goals, context), etc. There is a pay version which offers some of the really neat features. For instance it can organize tasks and analyze what you have to do and how much time you have if you don't have the energy to work efficiently. Toodledo will tell you what it thinks will make you productive. In the pay version is also some collaboration tools. Features and Comparison

Cool Feature: Task organizational tools and procrastination mode.

Writeboard
Part of Backpack. This app is like a dumbed down wiki. I'm very unimpressed by Backpacks offerings.

Cool Feature: When viewing the history, deletions are striked out and additions are highlighted. Maybe we can get Bill to implement this into OWW.

My Diary
Eww people use this site? It's basically Blogger or Wordpress. There is no information and I bet it sucks since the website is lame. This is for people who can't keep up with technology.

Cool Feature: Retro internet (not a good thing).

Yojimbo
A Mac only data collector. And you pay for it. Installed on your Mac. Who uses this stuff in today's online world? Cool Feature: None.

reQall
Has a long way to go if it is going to catch up with some products above. My favorite part of this project is the random quote promoting the product (and yes there is only one quote) "So far this software is great!" -Tom Schuler. Who the fuck is Tom Schuler? Looking up on Wikipedia he is an Olympic Athlete from Detroit, MI. Who cares what he has to say?

Cool Feature: Integration with Evernote, Google Calendar, Outlook.

WebAsyst Notes
Cool Feature: None.

Jottit
Woah! Click that link and see what I'm talking about. Jottit lets you create a website just by typing in a text box. After the website is created, you can create your domain.jottit.com and then customize your website. Editing the website is similar to editing a wiki and this site actually is like a wiki. You can set your site to require passwords to edit or leave it completely open so that anyone can edit or you can leave it completely private. I don't really see a use for this but the presentation is pretty nice and I thought I'd jot this down. You can embed web stuff and probably do way more than I can think of right now.

Cool Feature: Aesthetics and ease of use.

Online Notepad
No information on the website. There are more ads than there are words about the app.

Cool Feature: None.

penzu
Touts itself as the Anti-Blog based on privacy settings. This is strange to me because I know Blogger allows you to post in private. One of the rave reviews is "I'm not kidding when I say Penzu is the most realistic re-creation of paper I've seen on the Web." Why would anyone want that? Why wouldn't you just write on paper, or use Google Docs, or Microsoft Office?

'''Cool Feature: Integration with Flikr. When you want to embed an image you get a view of all your Flikr pics and you can just click one and in it goes.''' Everything else I've seen looks like it was created by someone with no creativity.

DEVONthink
Mac and iPhone only. They directed me to a windows version site and the entire page talked about buying a Mac, buying Parallels, and running all Windows stuff through Parallels. I thought that was pretty funny. Their website stinks and it seems their product isn't anything special. Just Google Docs but on a CD.

Cool Feature: None.

Springnote
I was just about to be done, but something told me I should look at a few more. This is the first one I looked at and I am floored. This is a notebook based on Wiki. It seems to be a great tool. I'm not too sure about publishing openly, but you can have group notebooks or a personal one. All of your notebooks get organized in a side panel. You can tag pages, search for info, see your recent posts, and tons more. Only 2GB of storage for free. I'm assuming there is a pay version, but I can't find it.

Cool Feature: Everything!

Final Grades
Best tools:
 * Diigo
 * Great for annotations and sharing web clippings
 * Remember the Milk
 * one of two task managers I liked
 * Toodledo
 * better than Milk (word-play!) but with cost
 * Springnote
 * looked promising as an OWW replacement
 * Evernote
 * great quick note collecting tool, becoming popular enough to be collaborative with lots of notebook tools
 * Zoho Notebook
 * looks very sweet, may be better than OWW as is now, may be best thing out there