Since I’m a nerd dork, I installed Google Keep on my Nexus and tinkered with it for a few minutes. It’s a beautiful little app and draws much inspiration from the Google Now theme. I wish Google would use this look and feel across all their properties and get rid of that ugly muted black header, blue and red button disaster they’re using now. Google Currents is another beautiful gem but the usability leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Below is the same note in my favorite note app, Evernote. The white background and black text remind me too much of MS Word. Evernote for Mac is beautiful. The Android app needs that same paint brush.

Evernote has many advanced and mature features that the newly launched Google Keep hasn’t incorporated yet. Encrypting text is huge for me along the dedicated desktop app. All my desktop browsers also have Evernote Clearly installed and 99.99% of the whatnots I post on tcrbang.com has been saved to Evernote first via that extension. At the moment my Evernote has 56 notes tagged for later reading and possible posting.

Personally, I’ll continue to use Evernote simply because Google can, will and does kill off services as it sees fit. Cases in point: Google Notebook and Google Reader. If you’re a dork nerd, you’ve already heard. Evernote’s whole business model is based on what they do. Google’s business is about search.

Remember kids — the big picture is that these websites that you sink your data and photos into aren’t public utilities. They just might close up shop and leave your ass cold and shaking in the wind.

If it wasn’t for Google Notebook getting the axe, I probably wouldn’t be using Evernote. They made it so super-duper easy for me to import my notes into their service, they were a godsend. See Google wanted me to put my notes into Google Docs. Bullshit Malarkey. I needed a note taking app, not a crappy online word processor. I loved Evernote so much after the move, I’ve been a premium subscriber since 2010.

PS— Skitch has more awesome.

#software