Yahoo
Its amazing I havent discovered online note-taking until now. Yahoo gets credit for introducing me to that concept with a new, automated service, though I ultimately found others that are more versatile and powerful – most notably, Evernote.
Bookmarks suddenly seem rudimentary. All theyll do is point you back to a previously visited Web site.
The Web-based note-taking services, on the other hand, let you zero in on specific passages and entries within a Web site. The programs also let you keep a copy of information in case it disappears from the original site. And the collections are stored online and can be shared with friends.
I can see using them to keep track of summer events, hobbies, nutritional advice and more, replacing my clunky system of e-mailing myself tidbits or storing them on documents Id never find later.
Yahoo Inc.s new Search Pad tries to automate all that, which ends up being its chief advantage and its chief shortcoming.
As I searched on Yahoo for free kayaking opportunities, Yahoo began remembering the links I clicked on and compiled them for me. I didnt have to turn the feature on or do anything else. To access the links, all I had to do was hit “View Notes” on the upper right corner of the search page.
From there, I can delete irrelevant links or add notes next to each, by typing my own reminders or pasting highlights copied from the Web site. I can save them to my Yahoo account to continue research later.
I can also manually add information from sites I find on my own, rather than through Yahoos search.
Once I paste a short passage, Yahoo combs through its index to find the Web site it came from and adds a link to it in my notes. (It doesnt always work when multiple sites have the same passage.) With the link, I can return to the source if I later realize I forgot to copy and paste a key detail.
But I quickly ran into limitations with Yahoos approach.
For one thing, because its tied to Yahoos search, Search Pad only tracks links from its search results. If from one of those sites I discover additional links relevant to my research, Id have to add them manually.
And the automation doesnt produce much more than Id get from a standard bookmark – the Web link and the page title. To add a specific passage, I have to flip to another browser tab, copy the text, return to Search Pad and paste.
But that also means youd have to remember to save results.
I went looking for other services that might address some of Yahoos shortcomings.
Online note-taking services from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. essentially have been discontinued. Microsofts Thumbtack never left its Live Labs experimental section, though anyone can still try it out.
Of the other services still out there, I found none as good as Evernote, from a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup by that name. You lose Yahoos automation but gain more functions.
Evernote offers customized software for Mac and Windows computers as well as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and other devices. I mostly tested Evernote using its Web-based interface, to more directly compare it with Yahoos Search Pad.