This week Google made two product announcements that generated a lot of press. The first is that it would be shutting down Google Reader on July 1, 2013. The second was the introduction of Google Keep, which people are referring to as the evolution of Google Notebook and a competitor for Evernote. (more on that below)
The closing of Google Reader has infuriated many people the tech community who have in turn stated they won't look at future Google offerings (like Keep) because they no longer have any faith that Google will maintain various (non-core) products. I understand and respect that position, but I don't share it. Google has a long history of shutting down products, perhaps most notably (among techies) Wave and Buzz. Just Google "Google Graveyard" and you'll find dozens of sites that track the vast array of products that are no longer being developed.
In my opinion Google has the right to shutdown any service (that people don't pay for) they would like, provided they do so in a professional manner. That means providing adequate warning and instructions on how to export your data. With Reader they are giving more than two months, and they are providing Google Takeout as a way to export your RSS feeds. Many alterantives are already jumping on the "Replace Reader" bandwagon. Personally, I use Zite on my iPad to get most of my news.
While I am not pleased that Google would shut down a product used (and loved) by so many people, it will not affect my decision to continue using Gmail, maps, Google+, Drive, and a dozen other products that I pay Google $0 for. I will take a look at Google Keep and future products, but do so with the knowledge that they may go away at any time. The need for long term stability is one of the reasons I pay for Evernote Premium, but still that's no guarantee.
So, getting back to Google Keep, my opinion is this is very early beta code, not nearly ready to replace anyone's use of a more powerful note taking tool like Evernote or OneNote. That's ok though, GMail was in beta for how many years? I am sure Google will get lots of feedback, release updates quickly and end up with a pretty good tool that integrates with many components of the Google platform.
The following are the issues I've had with Keep, listed as I discover them. I will continue to add items.
- Extremely simple, no rich text (tables, fonts, etc)
- Choose an image to upload does not provide an option to choose from your pictures from Google+/Picasa, it's only upload from computer
- When a new note is created the cursor goes into body field instead of title, which I find very annoying
- The icon to select the note colour is different on mobile (looks like a painter's palette) than on the web (it's a paint can)
- I created a voice note on mobile, but when I view it on the web, there is no embedded player (in Chrome at least), you have to download the file to listen to it
- You can't change the note colour from the main view, you have to open the note
- No folders/notebooks to help organize your content
- No tagging
- You can't reorder the individual items in lists
- In Keep the icon for "Insert An Image" is a picture of a mountain. In Google+ it's a picture of a camera and uses the hover text "Add Photos". I'd like to see consistency across all products please.
- No way to sort notes. (ex: title, created, modified, etc.) This is the biggest blocker for me so far.
- When I update a note, it does not resort to the first note
What do you think is missing and what would you like to see? I imagine one of the first things they will do is enable people to share information in Keep with their Google+ Circles. You'll also probably be able to display Keep notes in Hangouts. The UI for Google Drive is quite "1990s file-manager-esque", so I'd like to see Drive evolve to have a Keep like UI, where you can see thumbnails of content. Stay tuned, I expect Keep will evolve quite quickly.
Have you looked at Google Keep, or are you staying away from Google due to lack of trust?
