Evernote: My Favourite App

If you haven’t heard of Evernote, you’ve probably been living under a rock for the last year or so…

What started out as a ‘just’ note-taking application grew in June 2008 into a cloud-syncing application with Windows, Mac and Web interfaces, enhanced by ‘clipping’ tools on all three platforms and text-recognition of any any images in notes.  It’s gained a huge following, announcing over a million users a few weeks ago (and anticipating over 2 million before the end of 2009) and I’m one of that million… I’ve even paid-up US$45 recently for a year’s premium membership (none of your PR glad-handing freebies for me thank-you!)

Evernote doesn’t refer to itself as a note-taking app any more, although it does that well, calling itself ‘your external brain‘ instead… and this isn’t as weird as it sounds. Beyond notes, it is now a great place to store documents, pictures, bookmarks, lists or any of the stuff that would normally clog-up a desktop or sit in unsent e-mails.  Even better, their range of mobile applications allow thoughts and notes to quickly be added throughout the day, allowing text,voice and images to be captured easily.  I’m by no means a power-user, but all my SpinVox-transcribed voicemail is forwarded into my Evernote account where it can be searched and annotated.  I also snap pictures of business cards with my phone so I can later search for people or company names, scan most of my important documents and draft blog posts alongside useful links (including this post).

And it’s certainly the mobile applications that have made the difference… Although the original Windows Mobile app saw limited uptake, the first iPhone client gained significant popularity reaching ten times the number of Windows Mobile-based users within just a few days of launch growing to half a million recently, CEO Phil Libin told me recently.  Phil was on European tour timed to coincide with the release of their Blackberry client, swiftly followed by a Palm Pre client (to the frustration of some users who expected Symbian or Android might be next on the list, although they are promised).

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