7 Apps for Online Note-Taking
May 28th, 2007 (12:00pm) Mike Gunderloy 81 Comments
If you’re like most of us, you deal with piles of unstructured information every day: phone numbers, ideas for later consideration, snippets of information from the web, recipes, phone messages…the list is endless. For the web worker, moving this information into an online notebook can be an attractive proposition. Rather than tie yourself to one computer, or even one operating system, you can get at your notes from anywhere that has a web browser handy. Not surprisingly, there are a fair number of choices in this arena these days.
For this roundup, I stuck to online applications that let you save freeform notes in some sort of organized fashion for later use. I skipped over others that are primarily designed as tools to annotate web pages, such as noteClip, and bookmark managers like del.icio.us, BlueDot, and Chipmark.
Google Notebook provides a relatively simple interface for storing snippets of text. You can have as many notebooks as you like; notebooks have sections; sections have notes. You can rearrange notes and comment on them, open up notebooks for editing by collaborators, and publish them on the web. There’s a FireFox extension that lets you clip text from a web page and store it in one of your notebooks as well. The best thing about Google Notebook is its integration with the rest of Google: you sign in with your Google account, and can export an entire notebook to Google Docs. But all in all, this is a pretty basic offering backed up by a big name.
mynoteIT is aimed at students. It requires you to organize your notes by classes (though you can name your classes anything you like, so there’s no reason that you couldn’t use GTD context names instead of course names), and entering a note is a relatively cumbersome process involving a rich text editor and more mouse clicks than most of the competition. mynoteIT includes a variety of other tools including a calendar for tracking assignments and group discussion functionality, but it’s probably too heavyweight if you just want some place to quickly jot notes.
Notefish, like many another Web 2.0 application, is still in beta. It lets you maintain a series of note pages, each of which can have many sections, each of which can have many color-coded notes. You can drag and drop notes around in 2D to rearrange them, edit them, and change their background color. There’s a browser extension to clip text and images from any page you’re viewing and stuff them in one of your Notefish pages. Notefish also lets you tag pages for easy searching. It’s simple to use and a bit more flexible than Google Notebook.
Notezz! is about as simple as you can possibly get in this space. You pick a username and password, and you get to maintain a list of notes. Each note has a title and text. You can view a list of titles, and you can add, edit, and delete notes. There are no browser extensions, fancy hierarchies, graphics, or any other frills here, just simple management for whatever you want to jot down and a single username and password to remember.
Stikkit is perfect for the developer who wants to tie their notes to other applications. Though you can treat it just as an attractive way to store yellow sticky notes online, there’s a whole sea of complexity lurking beneath that friendly surface. Stikkit understands dates and reminders and tagging and bookmarks and e-mail and sharing; it actually looks at the text of your notes and tries to act intelligently on them. There’s a whole API you can interact with as well. While the learning curve for Stikkit can be steep, if you’re the sort of user who digs applications like QuickSilver it’s worth a look.
Yahoo! Notepad is on the simple side. You get a single note-taking area, which you can organize one level deep with folders. Inside of folders you store notes, which are just plain text entered through an old-fashioned web form. On the plus side, this application should run on just about any browser anywhere; on the minus side, you won’t find any advanced features, not even browser extensions or tagging.
Zoho Notebook is the most visually complex and impressive of the bunch. If you’re familiar with Microsoft OneNote, you’ve seen the basic Zoho Notebook interface: you can have multiple notebooks, each with pages, each with sections, each with notes that you can drag and position on a 2D canvas. Pages can be entire web pages or Zoho’s own online spreadsheets or documents as well as notebook pages. If you’re working on a notebook page, you can add text or HTML or RSS feeds or audio or video clips or images, among other things. You get versioning and sharing and commenting and publishing as well as a Firefox extension that can clip text and images from any page and shoot it over to an open notebook. The service has just left beta, and I’ve seen some reports of pages not being properly saved (though I’ve not experienced any trouble in my own limited testing). For building up a rich notebook of varied content, Zoho Notebook is currently to one to beat.
Overall, which direction you go depends on how highly you weight various factors. My own recommendations: Google Notebook for dependability, Stikkit for integration, Zoho Notebook for flexibility, or Notezz! for simplicity.
81 Comments Post your own comment
OnWebStartups.com Admin says: May 28th, 2007 2:20pm
I have had a great experience using Google notebook. It was great for noting all the listings I was finding for my recent apartment search.
Blog - http://www.onwebstartups.com
Aidan says: May 28th, 2007 3:44pm
Nice List! I use Google and Zoho Notebooks and I think I might give Stikkit a try.
I recently discovered , which, although it isn’t strictly a notetaking application, I’m very impressed with.
Coops says: May 28th, 2007 7:43pm
Google notebook is perfect for me.
engtech says: May 28th, 2007 10:01pm
Trying out a Moleskin pocketbook for the first time. Really liking it so far, but let’s see if it becomes habit.
Sam Carson says: May 29th, 2007 2:09am
TiddlySnip is kind of similar, it works like the Google Notebook firefox extension but saves the content locally in a Tiddlywiki (which, in turn, can be saved quite easily online).
Tiddlywikis are exceptionally versatile and expandable single file HTLM “notebooks”. Supported by the friendliest darn community on the interweb.
Lasse says: May 29th, 2007 2:49am
Thanks for this valuable information.
I will start to use Google Notebook right away. I agree that many of us have piles of unstructured information everyday, these seems to be the right tools for solving that.
Thank you for sharing and looking forward for your future post
Lasse
http://www.pwealthformula.com
Keep your notes online | Michael’s Tech Blog says: May 29th, 2007 3:38am
[...] [via Web Worker Daily] [...]
2.0 weblogs says: May 29th, 2007 6:10am
Google has been my mainstay, but zoho is really the best of the bunch. Thanks for bringing the other apps to light, i’m sure many people will like to try them out, I’m still sticking with zoho tho so…
http://ThunkDifferent.com
dahrn says: May 29th, 2007 6:12am
I am actually in the process of developing my own note-taking service. Students will definitely enjoy this once it enters into a further Beta development stage:
http://www.myaccessnotes.com
Drainedge Link Tank · Today's Links says: May 29th, 2007 8:10am
[...] 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking - Web Worker Daily [...]
Travis says: May 29th, 2007 9:12am
Thanks for the list. I am exploring Google Notebook now. Being that I am a gmail addict, and love my google homepage I am inclined to stay with GNotebook only too keep everything in one “place.”
Eugene Mizin says: May 29th, 2007 10:25am
Mike, thank you for the overview of Notefish!
I would like to provide a quick illustration of our flexible grid (2D canvas) and color coding. Here is an example of the same notes saved in Notefish and Google Notebook:
- notes for a trip to Vegas:
http://www.notefish.com/notes.php?p=643
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/09571072550247067072/BDR4KSwoQka3ryNAh)
Notefish also comes in very handy with photos, side-by-side comparisons, and generally offers a great way to organize notes.
- shopping for a house: http://notefish.com/notes.php?p=159
- sharing trip photos: http://notefish.com/notes.php?p=2661
We hope Notefish can simplify web research and note-taking for more people, and we would love to hear people’s feedback - write to us at info@notefish.com.
Eugene Mizin
Notefish team
http://www.notefish.com/
D. says: May 29th, 2007 10:57am
for off-line notes I use moleskines. they work well for me but really any pocket-size notebook will do just fine.
outeasy says: May 29th, 2007 11:54am
Thanks very much for this. I’ve been using Google and needed other features, and had no idea all this was out there, nor time to check it out, so major kudos to you!
Top Posts « WordPress.com says: May 29th, 2007 4:58pm
[...] 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking If you’re like most of us, you deal with piles of unstructured information every day: phone numbers, ideas for […] [...]
Gerard says: May 29th, 2007 7:56pm
@Eugene of Notefish: I’m confused, your response is written as if this is an active project. Yet, under “News” on your website, the last “news” on your product (Notefish) was September of 2006 - EIGHT months ago. I always look at these kinds of things before committing my time and data to a site that seems abandoned by the developers. To me, there’s no excuse to update a “news” page for 8 months! In these days of regularly updated development blogs, that looks pretty lame.
(Just being honest)
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[...] Take notes, note tools on line May 28th, 2007 Check out Web Worker Daily for several different on-line notebooks. Looks [...]
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kaptenkaos says: May 30th, 2007 6:54am
Why use another complex app with another username and password?
Try yPen instead, this is what simplicity is. Do you want to figure out how all the stuff works and register for an account, or do you want to just open a page and write down a vital couple of lines?
Dr Shock says: June 2nd, 2007 10:56am
I like: http://www.backpackit.com/ and use for research for my blog. But if you want some more space (writeboards, only 2 for free) and image or file upload you will have to start paying $5 a month.
Might change to google notebook for free, but first some testing.
Thanks for your post Dr Shock
philippe says: June 2nd, 2007 11:55am
Hi, i’m french, excuse my bad english
http://www.protonotes.com/ is new and makes it possible to take notes on each visited site. Ideal to work on a project in construction
I talked about it in my blog ( in french )
hombrelobo says: June 2nd, 2007 12:39pm
You want simple ? Try http://deusto.com
thecomplex says: June 2nd, 2007 1:28pm
Next, the holy grail of notetaking …notes online and on mobile
Patrick Kelso says: June 2nd, 2007 3:21pm
I use Google Notebook a little, and Gmail a lot for note taking.When I’m out and about I use Twitter and my mobile phone to take notes. Here’s how I do it. SMS to Email Notetaking
Taking Note(s) « Thinking Things Through says: June 2nd, 2007 3:35pm
[...] Zoho Notebook and noted that it is a very different animal from Google Notes. Now I’ve found another opinion which covers a broader range of online note takers. To the extent I’ve explored these things, [...]
Il Liceo » Blog Archive » Web Applications: The best online apps for taking notes says: June 2nd, 2007 4:20pm
[...] is your particular favorite, and why? Let’s hear it in the comments. — Wendy Boswell 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking [Web Worker Daily [...]
JMSC says: June 2nd, 2007 4:58pm
I really enjoy Sticky Notes for GNOME Window Manager under GNU/Linux,
It’s really easy to use:
There is one icon on the panel, when clicked, all notes come to front of screen, you can resize, move, change colors, titles…
When you want to make all that information dissapear, just click anywhere outside the notes.
It’s fast, simple, opensource, and all the information is stored on a XML file under your home directory.
Arun says: June 2nd, 2007 6:29pm
This list is very good. Thank for your work.
ian says: June 2nd, 2007 6:32pm
there is also http://www.notesake.com fairly new startup and based around college students but you can take notes, tag, date, share, and collab.
Toygar says: June 2nd, 2007 7:25pm
Google notebook rocks for me. I hate to have a password and username for every page that I visit on the web.
socialorb says: June 2nd, 2007 9:32pm
I like Yahoo Notepad especially since you can combine it with the Yahoo Widget Engine.
Stikkit sounds like something I would like to try. I like Google Notebook too and use it with Firefox.
Torts says: June 2nd, 2007 10:20pm
I use everyday:
Wridea: http://www.wridea.com
ubikuo: http://www.ubikuo.net
Helipad: http://pad.helicoid.net/home.html
Netvibes webnotes: http://www.netvibes.com
Hope someone find this useful…
Reggie says: June 3rd, 2007 4:21am
Zoho notebook is promising, but the Firefox clipping extension seems to require you to be logged into your notebook and have it open to work. I may be wrong, but that would require you to have your notebook open in a tab at all time. Not as convenient as others..
Thomas says: June 3rd, 2007 7:32am
Good write up of the different applications. I appreciate that you were able to condense a bunch of overview information very quickly.
I wrote up my first impressions between Google Notebook, OneNote and Zoho Notebook. I just did a quick comparison about usage and functionality.
pligg.com says: June 3rd, 2007 8:54am
Great Apps to take Notes Online
Web worker daily has listed some good note-taking online application and compared the pros and cons of them.
His recommendations are Google Notebook for dependability, Stikkit for integration, Zoho Notebook for flexibility, or Notezz! for simplicity….
teddlesruss says: June 3rd, 2007 9:17am
Why does everyone forget syncnotes? http://www.syncnotes.com/ take a look. No I don’t have any affiliation with them, but I really despair when I see “round-ups” with half the cattle missing…
Edit and organise notes on the web or download a client for the PC and - important to me - PDA.
JR says: June 3rd, 2007 12:52pm
What a peice of $heet! Zoho Notebook is useless! I signed up, activated the account and went to work. I must admit it has a nice interface. I spent 20-30 mins working in it, setting up pages, adding links, images, etc… I saved everything and it stated that my pages were all successfully saved. Logged out and logged back in. Everything was gone as if I had logged in for the first time. I’m moving to Google Notebooks until they fix this.
Sergio says: June 3rd, 2007 1:54pm
if you are a fun of mindmap notes organization, than try
http://www.mindmeister.com/
I am using it with my team to share actions, projects, and note everyday.
feedmashr.com says: June 3rd, 2007 4:43pm
also, http://www.flynote.com
Christopher says: June 4th, 2007 2:02pm
nice article :)
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Rob O. says: June 6th, 2007 9:03pm
I’ve been using Google Notebook for about 2 weeks now and am really enjoying it for composing blog posts in advance, which I had previously been using a standalone text editor for. But the real advantage of Notebook for me is that, like Google Reader, your info travels with you - accessible via any browser anywhere so you can jot down a few notes wherever & whenever you happen to be online checking mail or catching up on feeds. Nice!
However, I’ve found text highlighting in Notebook to be a little twitchy at times… I wish there was a “Select All” option like that which exists in most installed editors.
Gwhiz says: June 7th, 2007 3:00am
OK. Here’s my pick. Though it came free with my Wacom a couple years ago, it has been a Godsend. By far, the best IMO would have to be EverNote (I use the Plus vsn, but I think the free basic is probably just fine).
Pluses: No signing in somewhere to use (Ie., Google et al, which would really bother me, I think). Easy to use. Not a lot of unnecessary features but more than I’d ever need.
Minuses: None that I know of.
MY: 2 cents
Valentin says: June 8th, 2007 1:53am
Simple.
Leif Dalands blogg - IT & Produktivitet » Del.icio.us: Ukens anbefalte lenker says: June 9th, 2007 5:16am
[...] Notater: Web Worker Daily � Blog Archive 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking - Her er en liste som presenterer hele syv nettbaserte applikasjoner som har mulighet for eller er opprettet for notatopprettelse og lagring. Det er en del kjente, men jeg fant et par-tre som jeg ikke hadde vært borti før. [...]
lo-fi librarian» Blog Archive » This Week’s Useful Tools says: June 10th, 2007 3:48am
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CNET.ro - » S/2: GreenBorder, Fedora şi multe de pe Lifehacker says: June 10th, 2007 1:32pm
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M@ Smith says: June 12th, 2007 11:27pm
How well do these (any and or all) work with mobile-access (WAP)? (I have Opera Mini)
Dress Down Friday | Truth, Blogaholics, and Bad T-Shirts says: June 15th, 2007 2:20am
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violet says: July 7th, 2007 12:57am
Guys and Gals,
There is a cool online note taking tool now. Check out http://www.fruitnotes.com
This is a real cool site. You can even record your voice notes here … A very powerful tool… you must see it.
enjoy,
academhack » Blog Archive » Two Good Reviews says: July 14th, 2007 5:11am
[...] for taking notes online . . . Web Worker Daily has a review of online note taking apps. This article covers the seven major online note taking applications. If you are looking to start [...]
DigiZen: Un blogfesor aprendiendo » Aplicaciones para tomar notas en línea says: July 14th, 2007 5:53am
[...] Web Worker Daily reseñan siete aplicaciones para tomar notas en línea: Google Notebook, mynoteIT, Notefish,Notezz!, Stikkit, Yahoo! Notepad y Zoho Notebook. [...]
James says: July 16th, 2007 6:33pm
I found http://www.fruitnotes.com very interesting, thought to share it with you guys here.
they have cool ways of storing notes online
1) Call a number and record your notes! - I found this very useful, I can record anything at anytime from my bed, from bus or car whenever anything pops up in my head, I sometime use it to record conferences or meeting minutes, talks with gf ;)
2) Write text notes - this is wonderful, to search my notes later at anytime and share my stories with friends.
3) Attach video, audio and images to your notes. - This is helpful for me to recall those lovely moments.
And its all for FREE!.
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Inter Alia says: August 5th, 2007 1:52pm
[...] article was posted a few months ago, but it’s still worth a look. It’s called 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking, and it discusses tools you can use to take notes of the research (or anything else, for that [...]
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[...] Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive 7 Apps for Online Note-Taking « (tags: notes productivity tools) [...]
Jay Lazy says: September 18th, 2007 12:18pm
As for me I use Wrike.com for my notes, random thoughts and ideas and my to-dos. The best 2 things I like about are 1. I can create tasks anywhere, from any computer or from my PDA; 2. I never forget a single thing, as I get email notifications to my inbox.
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James says: October 8th, 2007 11:27am
Don’t forget notesphere, the simplest of all the note taking apps. :-)
steve says: November 5th, 2007 12:22am
I use a free program for this called sync notes @ http://www.syncnotes.com works super on my computer. It’s both a online note taking site and a desktop app. You can creat note on your desktop or computer and they are uploaded to syncnotes. You can also send notes to othe sync notes users.
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xzhong says: November 14th, 2007 8:07pm
If you want to store important stuff in your note such as passwords, account numbers, you need one with security. Try NoteHere Explorer
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Thunk Different. says: November 28th, 2007 3:04pm
this is useful.
ubergeek says: December 17th, 2007 10:15pm
Take a look at UberNote. http://www.ubernote.com
Been working on it for about a year and now it’s open for registration.
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7 aplicaciones web de notas - Hackea Tu Vida says: June 1st, 2008 7:59am
[...] pierdas ningún artículo: Cada uno te sorprenderá! Muchas gracias por tu visita!Web Worker Daily escribe, en inglés, una reseña de blocs de notas en web, con las que podemos guardar en un mismo [...]
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online notes says: September 25th, 2008 7:32am
I’ve just released a new version of notezz, just wanted you to know. And hopefully google too. Somehow google wont index my site after I’ve removed the http://www. But who uses google anyway. :P Thanks for mentioning my app.
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Cesar Steven says: November 16th, 2008 4:59pm
Where´s Evernote?
yoon says: December 28th, 2008 9:28pm
I am very surprised the fact that Springnote is not in the list. As a teacher, I think Springnote is an only service I can actually use in my practice. try http://www.springnote.com