29 Sep 2008

The Battle of Web Based Notebooks

I’ve been using Google Notebook for nearly a year now and although the product wasn’t perfect, I really couldn’t complain all that much about it. Any time I was on the computer and had a random thought or business idea I wanted to jot down, I’d throw it into Google Notebook and quickly be done with it. Although there is no real lack of Google haters, I find myself to be a very happy and content Google fanboy. Still, something didn’t feel quite right about Google Notebook and all my Twitter friends kept talking about this new software called Evernote. Often times when I’m under a barrage of tweet attacks I’ll find myself ignoring most of them due to stubborness (a trait I refuse to apologize for), but eventually I couldn’t withstand the attack and checked it out.

Note: Although Evernote offers paid “pro” features, this review features Evernote’s free functionality.

My first impression of Evernote was that the site was much better looking than I expected and it had that unmistakable web 2.0 quality to it. They had a cool logo (an elephant, totally cool) and the signup looked easy, so I gave it a spin. Mind you, this was about a month ago and I wasn’t even really looking to replace Google Notebook, just to voraciously consume every web 2.0 site I could get my hands on. What ended up happening however, was a battle so fierce that…well I actually can’t give it away yet because that would defeat the purpose of the review, but anyway I had a really hard time deciding which application I preferred. So in an effort to decide who would be victorious in the realm of web based notebooks, I matched them up head to head, and this is what I found:

Ease of Signup

The first thing that people do when they want to use a new web 2.0 product is sign up…easy enough right? Well Google Notebook is a very easy process, particularly if you already have a Google Account. You simply press a few buttons and boom, you’ve got a new notebook.

Evernote is fairly simple as well, you just click a button to get to the new user page, type in a few details about yourself, and off you go.

I’d call this one a toss up because both of them get you off and running in just a minute or so, which is how it should be.

Interface

Google Notebook’s interface is fairly straight forward, albeit a little bland. The left side of the screen lists all of your current notebooks with the note labels in a box below. There is a typical text editor and a few buttons to save or start a new notebook. Here is a screenshot:

As far as Evernote goes, the interface is more involved, which I believe to be a good thing. At first glance, the options are a little overwhelming, but at least there are options. The opening interface lets you see all of your notes combined onto one page in the form of little sticky notes. If you open an individual notebook you will find the same interface as well as the option to open up the text editor to add or change your notes. The interface allows you to customize the page to your preference, which is a far cry from Google’s simple interface. Here is a screenshot:

Overall, I’m going to have to give this one to Evernote because of the ability to customize the interface as well as the overall “feel” of the page itself.

Labels / Tags

Labeling and Tagging is a huge issue for me because I keep a ton of notes and without a good labeling system my notebooks become a cluttered mess. What’s the point of keeping notes if you can’t go back and find them easily?

Google Notebook gives you the ability to label every individual note at the click of a mouse. You can also comment on your own notes, which comes in handy if you want to monitor progress or add something to your original note. Although the feature isn’t fancy, it works well enough to keep a handle on your notes.

Evernote has tags as well, but they are a bit more difficult to access and record. However, once they are stored they are very easy to access via a menu on the sidebar.

I happen to like Google’s tagging feature better, but that doesn’t mean Evernotes is lacking in any way. Still, I’ll give this one to Google.

Browsing

This is where an online really defines itself in my book. Having to do the whole copy and past thing on a webpage, especially if I want to bookmark or stumble a page, is just an added hassle I don’t want. Luckily, both of these programs offer great solutions to this problem.

Both Google and Evernote require the Firefox plugin to make these features work, but they are a very quick install. Google’s is here, and Evernote’s is here.

Google’s plugin gives you the ability to pull up your notebook from the bottom of your browser window, which is really handy if you don’t want to open a new window. It pops up attached to the bottom corner of your browser and lets you add a quick note and close it in a hurry. You can also choose to go full screen if you wish. Also, when on a web page you can select anything on that page, right click and add to Notebook. The only problem I have with this feature is that it can be difficult to get the content into the right notebook and the loading time is a little slow.

Evernote has a nice concept with their plugin because although it basically works the same way, a small pop-up opens in your current window allowing you to choose the notebook, tags, and title for the note. This saves you the aggravation of loading time and waiting for a new window. Also, there is a very cool feature called web-clipper that lets you screenshot anything with a resizable box and then post the screenshot to Evernote.

Although I like Google’s innovation in this department, Evernote came out and improved on the design. Give this one to Evernote.

Extras

This is where things will really start to get fun and I’m so excited about some of these features that I’m going to go against order and talk about Evernote first. Evernote wasn’t happy with just a web interface and so they decided to go all out. If you visit their download page, you will find not only a Windows and MAC version of the software, but you will also find a mobile version and an Iphone version. Although I haven’t used either mobile version, I have used the Windows version and I love it even more than the web interface. For starters, you have the ability to synchronize your account from Windows which allows you to access and use Evernote from nearly any PC in the world. The software has easy to use buttons for adding, printing, emailing, tagging, and deleting notes and lets you export them in a variety of formats. The software is flat out excellent.

Evernote also lets you email yourself notes in the event you don’t have access to the software online or on your desktop. You are assigned a simple email address and you can email notes, photos, and audio clips from your computer or phone right into an Evernote notebook. Emailed notes are placed into your default notebook. Although I haven’t used this feature much, having the option to is great.

Lastly, Evernote offers you the ability to import Delicious Bookmarks and their tags. Although I don’t use this feature a lot, its nice to know that I can hit up my bookmarks while going through my notes.

The only extra that Google Notebook really offers is a way to share your notebooks. This may be handy for collaborative projects or if you like to share lists (I use it to share Gift Wish Lists), but this really isn’t that special or irreplaceable.

Now, obviously I’m going to have to give this category to Evernote and although it looks like Evernote has the clear edge, I’m going to have to pause before my judgement. You see, even though Evernote clearly beats Google in several categories, I still find myself using Google Notebook nearly half of the time. As I’ve tried to find a reason for this I can only think of one reason: Google Notebook is cleaner, simpler, and really I’m just used to using it. Where Evernote reigns supreme, features and innovation, Google is weak. However, Google Notebook’s strengths lie in its ability to be used quickly and without effort for quick notes or ideas.

So there you have it, Evernote is the clear victor by category, but I’ll still be using Google Notebook for simpler note taking and random thoughts. If you haven’t yet, try them both and let me know what you think.