Why should you use Evernote? Because it will change your life | Hacker News Reader

Why should you use Evernote? Because it will change your life

andrewgertig.com

1 pointGertig6 comments

I've started using Evernote over a year ago after a colleague suggested it. I was looking for a simple way to manage to do lists and other arbritary information (especially from what I receive in e-mails). I use the non-synchronizing private notebooks for work related stuff - I don't use Evernote for personal reasons.

So far it has served the purposes for what I needed, I have only one gripe with it at the moment - and that is the copy/pasting of HTML like content that often ends up mangled (which is sort of expected from HTML based WYSIWYG like editing).

I agree that the formatting of pasted HTML is not ideal, it's difficult to accomplish anywhere though because you are not actually copying the CSS styles with it unless they are inlined.

not to be a debbie downer, but though I read your article, I dunno that the reason you gave (being searchable) was really worth using Evernote. A text file on your desktop could do just as well, if that were all Evernote was good for, right?

I signed up for an Evernote account years ago, but instantly got turned off by the fact that my personal notes would not be private any more. Completely unrelated to the break-in they suffered, just the fact that now, my notes, that I carefullly and meticulously take, would be on the internet somewhere. That actually didn't do it for me.

Evernote's searchability is key because it applies to everything you put in it. It uses OCR to make images with text in them searchable, it does the same with PDFs etc. So it really is not the same as a text file.

Why do you think your personal notes are not private in Evernote? Wouldn't that be the same thing as not using Gmail because your email is on the internet somewhere? I see your point but it's hard to get away from using the cloud to store personal data.

> it's hard to get away from using the cloud to store personal data

Not really that hard. Just don't store it there. However, it is harder to have anytime, anywhere access to your personal data without using the cloud to store it. Still not impossible... but that depends on how big this data is.

So in addition to agreeing with jackrabbit --

Other non-connected applications can use OCR. Maybe you can make a case for Evernote's specialty recognition of cursive or handwriting, but, in the end, it boils down to text. they sure aren't doing picture-searching

It's not that personal notes are not private, it's more that anything that is put on the internet's privacy is questionable. Whether it SHOULD be that way or not is up for debate, but if you upload something somewhere, unless that somewhere is a black hole, someone might be able to retrieve it, through legitimate or illegitimate means.

The thing is, Gmail is something I can't do myself. It facilitates exchange at a level reasonable for use (like, I can't duplicate the USPS, and I can't duplicate Gmail) -- of course, I could just send email from my own IP, but they offer something special, verification of my identity, and make it easier to send messages... Where is that special functionality from Evernote?

As far as using the cloud to store personal data -- It might be hard, but it's easier to avoid actively pursuing new ways to put personal data on the internet

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