Top 10: Online notebooks for business

2022. Microsoft launches its AI-powered notetaking app Journal as an official Windows app



After a little over a year since its initial release, a digital note-taking app called Journal is transitioning from an experimental project within Microsoft's internal incubator, Microsoft Garage, to a fully-fledged Microsoft Windows application. The company recently announced that the note-taking app will now be known as Microsoft Journal, enabling users to capture their thoughts and create drawings using digital pens on Windows tablets, 2-in-1s, and other pen-enabled devices. Originally, Journal aimed to provide users with an alternative to traditional pen and paper for capturing inspiration while still allowing them to express themselves through writing.


2018. Zoho Notebook integrates with Zapier



Zoho Notebook has now integrated with Zapier, allowing users to connect their Notebook account to a wide range of apps and automate tasks. With just a few simple clicks, you can integrate Notebook with over 1,000 apps by creating zaps. For instance, if you rely on Google Calendar to organize your schedule, the integration between Notebook and Google enables you to efficiently manage your time and work. When you create a calendar event in Google Calendar, Zapier automatically generates a note card in Notebook, ensuring that you have a pre-existing note ready for your thoughts when you attend the meeting or class. Furthermore, if you're looking for a convenient way to save your favorite messages, connecting Notebook with Slack through Zapier allows the messages you mark as favorites to be saved as notecards in the Notebook app. The Zapier integration expands the possibilities of Notebook and enhances its functionality by seamlessly connecting it with various popular apps and services.

2018. Zoho Notebook adds encryption, night mode



Zoho has introduced an update to Notebook that brings forth several new features. Notably, all the content stored in Notebook is now encrypted when at rest, ensuring utmost security for your notes and data. The addition of Night Mode aims to reduce eye strain while using Notebook in low-light environments. Furthermore, the developers have incorporated enhanced Apple Pencil support for iOS devices, providing a seamless and enhanced user experience. The update also introduces new formatting and styling options for your notes, along with support for Right-to-Left languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu.


2014. Microsoft OneNote becomes free


The online notebook-organizer, OneNote, has historically been a component of Microsoft Office, requiring a paid subscription. However, with the introduction of the free Office Online, the online version of OneNote also became freely accessible. Subsequently, Microsoft released free mobile OneNote apps for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone. Nonetheless, the desktop version of OneNote remained exclusive to the paid MS Office suite. Today, Microsoft has unveiled OneNote for Mac and announced that the desktop version for both Windows and Mac is now available for free. As a result, Evernote faces a significant competitor that offers comparable cross-platform availability, convenience, and functionality. In addition, OneNote provides users with more extensive free cloud storage and collaboration features that are only accessible through Evernote's paid version.


2013. Google trolls users. Launches online notebook Google Keep


Google has launched a new service - Google Keep. It's an online notebook, where you can add notes (text, pictures, lists). It works in browser and on Android. It doesn't provide any way to organize the notes (no folders, tags), you can't insert links in note and share notes. But it can transcript speech to text on the fly (on different languages). In general, it's the alternative to Evernote with its advantages and disadvantages. But, of course, in light of the recent events, it's interesting to know, why this service appeared. As you know, Google provided the similar service in the past - Google Notebook. It was even better than Evernote and only missed mobile app. It had many users. But then it was closed. ***


2011. Evernote finally gets a normal Web app



After the closure of Google Notebook, Evernote actually became the most popular online notebook. Even having such strong competitors like Zoho Notebook and MS OneNote. The main advantage of Evernote is that it's available everywhere as a native app: on Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile, as a plug-in for browsers. Of course, the global access to an online notebook, including offline access, is extremely important to users. But the web-client of Evernote was the main reason why the majority of Google Notebook users preferred to stay with it (even after closure) and not move to Evernote. Today Evernote finally has released a normal Web-based app with a convenient interface (like in Outlook). In addition, the web-engine has been completely rewritten and now it works really fast. ***