"Google Keep" notetaker ??

Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 28, 2018 at 12:52 PM

4-5 years later, I have to revise my opinion about Google Keep in a big way. In fact it’s has taken over from WorkFlowy as my main on-the-go note and todo capture and prioritisation tool.

I would still not trust it enough to make it my Zettelkasten system (though I have toyed with the idea, and there is a lot going for it), mainly because it is not possible to link notes to each other and each note does not have its own URL.

But in many other ways Google Keep has become a key part of the emerging Google (+Android) ecosystem that is structured around the latest crop of convertible Chromebooks and Chromebook tablets that come with Wacom styluses or similar. But it also works across platforms.

Why do I like it suddenly? There have been a lot of new features added compared to the version 4 yrs ago, which make it a more complete solution.

1. It’s cross-platform and sync is instant. I use it on iOS, Windows, Chrome OS, and Android.

2. I can take both typed and handwritten/drawn notes (using an EMR stylus on my convertible Chromebook), and capture URLs and web text using a Chrome browser extension.

3. It works on the basis of a post-it note metaphor, whereby you can pin the most important notes at the top permanently, and you can rearrange them manually at will, which is very helpful for dynamic daily prioritisation.

4. There are two main ways to categorise notes (besides pinning them): by colour coding or by adding “labels”. The latter can also be done now by just typing # in front of a word in the body of the note.

5. You can toggle between regular note text or a todo list with checkboxes. There are options for different behaviours as to what happens to checked todos (or where new todos are added - top or bottom of the list).

6. You can set reminders.

7. You can export notes to Google Docs.

8. You can share notes with others.

9. The “Archive” feature is handy for keeping to main view less cluttered and not having to delete notes that you may need later.

10. It’s integrated with Google Calendar and Google Drive apps (Google Docs, Sheets etc.), where you can toggle it in a bar that slides out on the right.

11. There is a good search function, as you’d expect from Google.

And it’s ‘free’ in the sense that it doesn’t cost extra money, with all the caveats that entails (i.e. you allow Google to analyse your data in exchange - I personally don’t have a problem with that, as I’m getting a lot of value from Google in exchange accross the various Google products I use, and I use uBlock Origin, so I never see any ads).

What are the advantages over WorkFlowy? When I got really busy, I started to have difficulty focusing with WorkFlowy’s growing mountain of lists (though I still use it for other purposes).

There is something about the concept of a single post-it note or index card that helps focus on a smaller set of issues within that visual metaphor, especially if it can be colour-coded and pinned and moved around, while in WorkFlowy all bullet points and lists look exactly the same, which seems to exert some kind of a cognitive tax, once one gets really busy with it.

As for the earlier concerns about the longevity of this service, at this point this seems to be a strategically important tool for Google, so I would expect it to last for a while (at least until Fuchsia OS replaces Chrome OS + Android, and possibly beyond), especially that it now becomes clearer how Keep acts as the heart of the stylus-enabled 2-in-1 Chromebooks and tablets that have been starting to replace the traditional laptop style Chromebooks.