I’m a big fan and avid user of Google
Notebook. Unfortunately, they seem to
be ending development on
it,
which means I need to find another place to store my notes. Google tells
you to look at Google Bookmarks, Docs, Tasks (in GMail) and the
SearchWiki feature as alternatives. Unfortunately, none of those are
really general note-taking devices. Docs might come close, but I’m
really not interested in writing full word processor style docs just to
jot down a couple of lines on monitor specs or an HTML snippet.
I’ve looked at a few solutions but none of the current “notebook” style
things seem to fit the bill. Here’s my criteria, in no particular order.
- Bullet list support. I take most of my notes in bullet list format.
It’s just my style. I need to be able to have multiple levels of
bullet list accessible in the note editor and it needs to render
correctly when I go back to read the note. You would be amazed at
the lack of ability for this in most notebook products.
- No client to install. I don’t want to have to install anything in
order to be able to read or edit my notes.
- No file synchronization. I don’t want to have to synchronize files
from one place to another in order for the notes to be “current.”
I’m never going to remember to do it and it’s just going to be
frustrating.
- Mobile accessibility. I need to be able to, at the very least, read
the notes from my BlackBerry web browser. Not “Opera Mobile for
BlackBerry,” not some mobile note app I have to install, but the
actual crappy BlackBerry browser.
- Free. I’m a single user who wants to keep some crap in a central
spot. I’ll roll my own solution before I pay you $100/year for a
notebook service. Yes, it’s OK if you throw unobtrusive ads into it
the way GMail does.
- Private. I’m not interested in making my private notebook into a
publicly accessible record.
To be clear, all of these are requirements. You might have the best
solution in the world, but if I have to synch up files to make sure the
latest version is online or on my client, it’s not on my list. It could
be the perfect note-taking application, but if I have to install
something on the client machine to get it to work, forget it.
To that end, I have started looking at various notebook products and
have yet to be swayed by any of them.
- Evernote: The web client is horribly
buggy. You might be able to create and edit notes with multiple
bullet list levels, but it always ends up flattening the list back
to one level. If you want to read and edit notes with real bullet
lists in them, you have to install a fat client. This has been
reported in the user
forums but
who knows when it’ll be fixed?
- Zoho Notebook: The web client is decent
if a bit confusing. Bullet lists are only supported at one level
unless you add a special “document page” to your notebook that
basically makes you edit your notes in an online word processor.
Totally not mobile accessible.
- OneNote: I
use OneNote for work notes and like it, and it appears you can do
some sort of synchronization if you integrate it with Office Live…
but it still means I have to install OneNote on the client and I
don’t recall seeing OneNote for BlackBerry.
I started thinking I might be getting mentally hemmed in by thinking in
terms of “notebook products” and may need to think more in terms of
“private wiki.” I think that’d work reasonably well, but it still needs
to fit the same criteria, so something like
TiddlyWiki won’t work because of the file
synchronization requirement.
How do you keep your notes? Got any ideas on what I should do?
UPDATE 2/5/09: PBwiki worked through some
technical difficulties and enabled my ability to log in with my
BlackBerry 8330 Curve. Their free plan looks just right for me, so I
think I’ll be moving to PBwiki. (I had originally discounted PBwiki
because I didn’t find a free plan; turns out it’s just not easy to find
info on their site for, but it exists.)