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Google Keep, a New Service for Taking Notes

36 points| denzil_correa | 13 years ago |googlesystem.blogspot.in | reply

55 comments

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[+] andyl|13 years ago|reply
How long before Google discontinues the service? I'll stick with EverNote.
[+] mark_l_watson|13 years ago|reply
+1 For $50/year I feel like Evernote is focused on me as a customer.

I just blogged about this: Google has cancelled 5 services that I used for work projects. I have just switched to using my own domain email as primary, moving my blog from Blogger to one of my own servers (Wordpress is actually pretty cool), and I am using Dropbox as my primary photo and music repository (now using Google's and Apple's services as just backups).

I really like being a paying customer for services that are important to me. I like Google's, Facebook's, and Twitter's free offerings, but I use them without depending on them.

I wonder different Google's, Facebook's, and Twitter's businesses would be if they had a modest fee (like $25/year) for users, and made users customers instead of products?

[+] hrayr|13 years ago|reply
Nothing in this world is forever. Get over it, you'll be happier. Take advantage of what's new and innovative, stop living in the past. It takes less than a minute to transfer your Google reader content over to the two dozen or so, very capable, replacements that are more than eager to take you on. If Google note decides to shut down in a decade, be assured that your content will be with you no matter where you decide to go next. There will certainly be many more, perhaps even more innovative and capable replacements at the time.

While it's nice to not have to migrate your content every decade or so (Google Reader was introduced 8 years ago), it's certainly not that painful. As apps and services evolve at blistering pace, I love the fact that we can get some fresh air, and a wave of new innovations. I hope more companies do what Google does, discontinue products, for whatever reason, and give others a chance to grow.

[+] lawdawg|13 years ago|reply
Reader lasted longer than almost all of the (major) RSS readers combined. What makes you think EverNote is going to be around forever?

Honestly, I don't understand the stance of using an inferior product (this assumes you believe Keep will be superior to EverNote, if not, then why even comment?) because you fear the superior one will be shut off. I rather use a product from a company that has a history of providing mechanisms to take out my data if/when they shut the product down instead of a startup/small company that will probably lose all my data when they go bankrupt or get acqui-hired.

[+] grimman|13 years ago|reply
Yeah... if they can't make money off of Reader, how will they ever make money with a product like this? Thanks, but I'm good too.
[+] pppp|13 years ago|reply
Yeah, I have a sudden mistrust of anything Google creates after they fked us with Reader.
[+] fusiongyro|13 years ago|reply
It will be interesting to see if uptake is diminished by their recent shutdown of Reader. It's hard to feel unwary of new Google services that don't smell like something 90% of folks will use.
[+] kdude63|13 years ago|reply
There's no 'if' about it. Everyone still is, and will be pissed at Google for quite a while.
[+] mkr-hn|13 years ago|reply
They had "Google Keep." It was called Google Notebook, and they killed it without warning. I would be interested in hearing the motivations of anyone who gives this application a serious try.

And I mean that. Maybe they've got some useful insight that allows for the possibility that this will be different.

[+] breakall|13 years ago|reply
Agreed, I look forward to the "Top 5 replacements for Google Keep" stories on Lifehacker, etc. in a few months/years.
[+] xutopia|13 years ago|reply
Google Reader is one of those tools that is hard to replace. I'm trying out alternatives but they all feel odd to me. I really liked hitting space to jump from one story to the next too. Keyboard navigation was really good in GReader.
[+] alexholehouse|13 years ago|reply
Phil Libin's long term plan for Evernote[1] is precisely what this sort of application requires, and is at total odds with Google's product release/discontinue approach.

Google Notebook was "discontinued" only a few years ago - and the kinds of consumers who would be interested Keep almost certainly share a significant overlap with those who two years ago were interested/used Notebook, and therefore have literally been bitten by Google in this exact space in the last few years.

[1] http://vator.tv/news/2013-01-17-phil-libin-on-an-evernote-ip...

[+] T_T|13 years ago|reply
While I think this is an interesting point, at the same time, it looks like it may have been more difficult technically and brand-wise for google to migrate notebook to drive (which I think is the goal). It probably made more sense for them to discontinue notebook, which had a relatively small userbase, and relaunch it as a new product/brand under the drive suite.
[+] erikj|13 years ago|reply
I'm not sure if I want to touch any non-core (Search, YouTube, Gmail) Google's services after the discontinuation of Reader.
[+] random42|13 years ago|reply
The thing is, a few weeks back Reader could be considered core Google offerings.
[+] cygwin98|13 years ago|reply
No way I'll give it a try. Bit by Google Notebook a few years ago.
[+] lylejohnson|13 years ago|reply
To be clear (for those of us who don't always click through and actually read the articles), this isn't any sort of announcement from Google --- it's just the results of some sleuthing that hint at a future note-taking service.
[+] Achshar|13 years ago|reply
It's more than a hint. The service was active on Google for some time a few hours ago and then was pulled down again. It definitely exists, not a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when'.
[+] elchief|13 years ago|reply
Sorry google but you can fuck off this week.
[+] pilif|13 years ago|reply
Irony explained using an analogy:

A new experimental product by Google with a dubious monetization strategy at best has the name "Keep".

[+] ben_pr|13 years ago|reply
This is a hard one. I'm a geek that loves to try new gadgets/websites and when I find one I like I use it a lot, like Google Reader for example. The problem with Google is I may get attached to one of their products and then a year or two down the road they pull the plug on it. It's happened enough times now that I don't even care to try Google products until it becomes as big as gmail and I'm sure it wont just vanish. Anyways plenty of other good services for taking notes that I can pay for and I'm sure they will be around for a long time.
[+] Tyrannosaurs|13 years ago|reply
All the "how long will it last" sentiment aside, this looks like a great move for Android - lists, notes and other basically structured data, synced across your mobile devices which Google can provide on Android devices out of the box if they want.

If they did do that it would also makes it less likely they'll pull it at some point in the future. Bundle it with Android and you're going to hit hundreds of millions of users very quickly. Even Google don't pull back from that sort of thing without thinking.

[+] lucb1e|13 years ago|reply
The most interesting about this is not that Google is building a new service, but how everyone responds to it. All trust seems to be entirely gone among most hackers around here.
[+] sciwiz|13 years ago|reply
This was live for a little bit last night. Here are some screenshots: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/03/17/google-keep-is-live-...
[+] bengillies|13 years ago|reply
To stay actually on topic for once, if these screenshots are anything to go by, Google Keep looks pretty bare bones and not really suitable as a replacement for anything bar the most simple use case (of course, a couple of screenshots does not a product make).
[+] shoopy|13 years ago|reply
This is some awesome commentary here.

Nobody even read the goddamn article. Bunch of parrots.