Zoho's Cool Web-Based Note Taker

One of the most impressive things I saw here at the DEMO conference (which wrapped up this evening) is a Web service that's still in a private alpha version. As such, it has every right to be rough around the edges, and it is--but it's also, in some important respects, among the most sophisticated Web-applications I've seen. It's Zoho Notebook--the latest in an every-expanding array of productivity tools from the folks at Zoho--and while it's reminiscent of Microsoft's OneNote note-taking application, I've never seen anything like it on the Web. (Google Notebook has a similar name and vaguely similar concept, but it's not in the same league when it comes to features, slickness, and general ambition.)

Like OneNote, Notebook gives you a tabbed virtual notebook full of pages that you can put stuff on, including words, shapes, and imported graphics...but that's just for starters. You can also embed external files, Web pages, and word processing and spreadsheet snippets, or bring in RSS feeds, audio, and video. In other words, a Notebook notebook can be a remarkably rich document.

Like any Web 2.0 application worth its salt, Notebook lets you collaborate by providing other folks with access to both full notebooks and parts of them, and you can publish Notebook pages to the Web so anyone can see them without signing up with Zoho. All of which gives it the potential to do some interesting things that OneNote can't.

Like I said, the alpha version of Notebook which Zoho let me test drive is rough: Some features don't quite work, and sometimes the interfaces gets bogged down (although for the most part it's pretty zippy). I also wish that there was a way to get Notebook pages out of Notebook into some standard file format (Word?) that I can save on my own hard drive--if there is, I'm not finding it.

But if Zoho polishes up Notebook by the time it goes public--they say they're planning for a public beta in March--it should be one of the most interesting applications in the Zoho suite...which was already one of the most interesting assemblages of Web-based services around.

Comments

Post a comment Post a comment

0 / 1000 max characters