Top 10 Online Note Taking Applications

Many of us prefer using online note taking applications for research, bookmarking sites, or quickly jotting down ideas. While there are many online note taking applications, we searched around the Web and compiled a list of those we felt were richer in features and usability. Here are the top ten, in no particular order.

Which note taking applications do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.

Evernote is one of the most talked about online note taking applications. One special feature here is the drag-and-drop desktop version that allows you to see your notes and clips offline. You can use the Evernote mobile application for your Windows Mobile phone or iphone to capture pictures and record audio to send to your Evernote account. You can also email notes to Evernote using a secret email address.

Google Notes has some nice features including collaboration among multiple users, a publishing feature, integration with Google Bookmarks, the 'Unfiled bookmarks' link on the left sidebar of the Google Notes Web interface that sorts and displays all the urls you have saved, quick clippings of Web pages with the 'star' button, and the export to Google Docs feature.

UberNote works in the same manner as Google Notes. However, one neat feature here is that you can add your tasks in any note that you are working on. Later, you can view the 'Open Tasks' link on the sidebar of the UberNote interface to open all notes with incomplete tasks. Similarly, you can integrate your bookmarks with any note and find it later with the 'Bookmarks' link. Other nice things to know about UberNote are that it runs on AJAX and has a history feature that will save all the revisions you make on your notes. You can clip notes with the UberNote online dashboard, with the browser extension, email your notes to a personal email address, or from an AOL IM application.

Springnote is an OpenID enabled online note taking application that takes a different approach than the ones mentioned above. This one is not for writing short notes and clipping websites, but longer notes, and comes out just a bit different than an average online office suite. The Springnote note editor is feature rich and you can choose from a variety of templates, plugins , and insert video and audio to enhance your notes. You can collaborate, share your notes with friends, or post them on your blog.

WebAsyst Notes comes with features for including attachments to your notes. You can sort the notes into specific folders and share the folders with your contacts. WebAsyst also has features to add files, photos, contacts, mail, projects, an issue tracker, pages, and a shopping cart.

Luminotes,a personal wiki notebook, as the site describes itself, is an easy to use wiki that lets you create notes. You can attach files to your wiki, and share them with your friends. Features such as automatic saving and revision tracking are very useful. Once you have completed your wiki, you can download it as well. This is not one of the conventional online notebooks but a key reason why you might want to use this is because of one feature that allows you to hyperlink one word or sentence in a notebook to another.

Stikkit wants to be a smart application without being clever. What it does is pick up specific terms from your notes and arrange your notes as to-do lists, calendars, contacts (peeps), bookmarks and tags list. Now is that smart enough? You can also choose to share your Stikkit notes with your contacts and receive comments. For quick Web clippings, it provides a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari, and a right click menu option for Internet Explorer users.

Fruitnotes allows you to create notes by calling a specific phone number, though currently they have only listed a US and UK number. It also allows you to create your own profile and view others', thus doubling up as a social networking platform. The note editor is feature rich and lets you upload images and videos. Once done, you can publish your note for everyone to see.

Notefish is a simple online note taking application that allows you to drag and drop your notes, resize them, color them, tag them, and share with contacts. You can also move one note from a particular project to another easily. There is a Firefox addon that you can use to clip Web pages conveniently.

Zoho Notebook is the most sophisticated and most feature-laden online note application of the bunch. Zoho Notebook provides you a palette where you can type and add image, audio, video, html, urls, RSS, files, sheets, and more. There are also various tools like the Line tool, Freehand tool, Select tool, Hand tool, and Shapes. There is a rich text editor with export, publish, and share features. You can record video and audios directly into the notebooks, integrate them with Skype for chats and IP telephony, or use the Firefox plugin to add Web clips easily. If you are the advanced online notebook user type, then you will find Zoho Notebook providing the solutions to almost all your requirements. I said 'almost,' as I couldn't find a mobile phone support for Zoho.

from: http://mashable.com/2008/08/19/online-note-taking-applications/

August 19, 2008 - 3:23 pm PDT - by Palin Ningthoujam