There has been quite a change in the market for online notetaking tools. Many more apps now have a mobile notes app that syncs. New players have entered and are growing fast, while may of the big players appear to have peaked.
The data below was taken from Compete.com, and it shows the December 2009 monthly unique users compared to the December 2010 monthly uniques, together with the annual growth percentage. If no data was available for December 2009, we used the earliest month for which data was available.
| Company |
URL |
Dec 2009 Uniques |
Dec 2010 Uniques |
Yearly Change |
| Yahoo Notepad |
http://notepad.yahoo.com |
447076 |
286462 |
-35.93% |
| ClipMarks |
http://clipmarks.com |
410224 |
186650 |
-54.50% |
| remember the milk |
http://rememberthemilk.com |
151423 |
149170 |
-1.49% |
| Diigo |
http://diigo.com |
155038 |
143529 |
-7.42% |
| Springpad |
http://springpadit.com |
154945 |
131289 |
-15.27% |
| Toodledo |
http://toodledo.com |
69396 |
115753 |
66.80% |
| Evernote |
http://evernote.com |
260973 |
61853 |
-76.30% |
| Backpack |
http://backpackit.com |
98336 |
48569 |
-50.61% |
| Writeboard |
http://writeboard.com |
92285 |
48255 |
-47.71% |
| penzu |
http://penzu.com |
6920 |
38130 |
451.01% |
| Zoho Writer |
http://writer.zoho.com |
34155 |
37452 |
9.65% |
| My Diary |
http://my-diary.org |
25172 |
28566 |
13.48% |
| Jott |
http://jott.com |
25004 |
27046 |
8.17% |
| OpenDiary |
http://opendiary.com |
24980 |
21977 |
-12.02% |
| SimpleNote |
http://simplenoteapp.com |
2995 |
19881 |
563.81% |
| Yojimbo |
http://barebones.com |
28755 |
18519 |
-35.60% |
| DEVONthink |
http://devon-technologies.com |
8405 |
16627 |
97.82% |
| Catch |
http://catch.com |
726 |
16225 |
2134.85% |
| reQall |
http://reqall.com |
20390 |
16202 |
-20.54% |
| Memolane |
memolane.com |
4393 |
14919 |
239.61% |
| Zoho Notebook |
http://notebook.zoho.com |
5729 |
13734 |
139.73% |
| TiddlyWiki |
http://tiddlywiki.com |
5487 |
13260 |
141.66% |
| stixy |
http://stixy.com |
339 |
10137 |
2890.27% |
| WebAsyst Notes |
http://webasyst.net/notes/ |
17777 |
9492 |
-46.61% |
| BasKet |
http://basket.kde.org |
1735 |
9431 |
443.57% |
| springnote |
http://springnote.com |
3854 |
8983 |
133.08% |
| MyStickies |
http://mystickies.com |
4622 |
8962 |
93.90% |
| Sticky-Notes |
http://sticky-notes.net |
5173 |
8749 |
69.13% |
| Jottit |
http://jottit.com |
13962 |
7528 |
-46.08% |
| ubernote |
http://ubernote.com |
3032 |
6868 |
126.52% |
| AwesomeNote |
bridworks.com |
3378 |
6522 |
93.07% |
| NoteTaker |
aquaminds.com |
872 |
5622 |
544.72% |
| Online Notepad |
http://jumk.de/notepad/ |
13096 |
5135 |
-60.79% |
| Memonic |
memonic.com |
278 |
4531 |
1529.86% |
| Zim |
http://zim-wiki.org |
798 |
4491 |
462.78% |
| MobileNoter |
mobilenoter.com |
953 |
4265 |
347.53% |
| DearDiary |
http://deardiary.net |
5351 |
3403 |
-36.40% |
| Snipi |
snipi.com |
14780 |
3362 |
-77.25% |
| OhLife |
http://ohlife.com |
9840 |
3043 |
-69.08% |
| eDailyDiary |
http://edailydiary.com |
3978 |
2468 |
-37.96% |
| Snaptic |
http://snaptic.com |
3079 |
2439 |
-20.79% |
| NotePub |
http://notepub.com |
2760 |
2295 |
-16.85% |
| Ibrii |
http://ibrii.com |
818 |
2247 |
174.69% |
| BloopDiary |
http://bloopdiary.com |
5857 |
2144 |
-63.39% |
| Notefish |
http://notefish.com |
3311 |
2103 |
-36.48% |
| CintaNotes |
http://cintanotes.com |
660 |
2069 |
213.48% |
| gubb |
http://gubb.net |
1491 |
1898 |
27.30% |
| Spynote |
http://spynote.com |
4 |
1722 |
42950.00% |
| SelfNotes |
http://selfnotes.net |
579 |
1431 |
147.15% |
| jjot |
http://jjot.com |
257 |
1320 |
413.62% |
| Notespark |
http://notespark.com |
2263 |
1235 |
-45.43% |
| MyNoteit |
http://mynoteit.com |
2301 |
1208 |
-47.50% |
| Sage Notebook |
http://sagenb.org |
300 |
1205 |
301.67% |
| Stickis |
http://stickis.com |
175 |
1133 |
547.43% |
| 124Diary |
http://124diary.com |
1464 |
1003 |
-31.49% |
| Mojonote |
http://mojonote.com |
1849 |
744 |
-59.76% |
| Jot This Down! |
http://jotthisdown.com |
2268 |
723 |
-68.12% |
| 3banana |
http://3banana.com |
2930 |
687 |
-76.55% |
| gradegenie |
http://gradegenie.com |
831 |
610 |
-26.59% |
| Wridea |
http://wridea.com |
603 |
481 |
-20.23% |
Gordon Bell‘s vision for the future is of software that will let you sort and sift through your digital memories to uncover patterns you would never have gleaned unaided.
You will need lifelogging hardware: a discreet camera permanently slung around your neck that can take photos at regular intervals, and a GPS device to record where you are at any time. Your phone calls, conversations and meetings will need to be digitally captured, all your emails stored, and every web page you look at downloaded. Then you will need to scan in any paper documents that head your way and refuse any books unless they are available on an e-reader.
Work, leisure and spending habits, the pattern of emotional response in various situations and around certain people, the numerous subtle factors affecting your mental well-being and physical health — just about anything you care to know about yourself — can be chronicled, condensed, cross-correlated and plotted out.
via Total recall: Data diaries explain who you really are | KurzweilAI.
This is just about the most complete list of note-taking apps, primarily online notepads and list managers, and a few desktop clients. Did we miss something? Know for sure one of these sites is out of business? Please leave a comment.
Compete.com rankings are for the month of December 2009.
We scoured the web to see who was still in the business of offering online note-taking applications, and here is what we came up with.
These are online notebooks for recording your personal notes and/or private web clips. They are listed with monthly unique users as reported by Compete.com:
If we missed anything, please leave a comment!
Interesting to see that Wikipedia has a whole section on Notetaking, including a comparison of a number of notetaking software and websites.
Here is what Wikipedia says about Notetaking:
Notetaking is the practice of recording information captured from a transient source, such as an oral discussion at a meeting, or a lecture. Notes of a meeting are usually called minutes. The format of the initial record may often be informal and/or unstructured. One common format for such notes is shorthand, which can allow large amounts of information to be put on paper very quickly. Notes are frequently written in notebooks, though all sorts of paper may sometimes be used: for instance, some people like to usePost-It notes. Notetaking is an important skill for students, especially at the college level. Many different formats are used to structure information and make it easier to find and to understand, later. Computers, particularly tablet PCs and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are beginning to see wide use as notetaking devices. In some contexts, such as college lectures, the main purpose of taking notes may be to implant the material in the mind; the written notes themselves being of secondary importance.
You can find the link to the Wikipedia comparison of notetaking software here:
Comparison of notetaking software – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Google’s decision to discontinue development of Google Notebook had some users petitioning to save it, while rival service Evernote is already offering Google Notebook imports. So for those left in the cold, and those not yet sold on Evernote, what are your options for alternatives?
Whether it be notes for business meetings, in a classroom or trying to remember that last minute item before you go out for the evening, there are all sorts of note taking solutions out there to help you get things done. Here’s our roundup of 20 of the best:
- Jjot
- Microsoft OneNote
- Springnote
- Grade Genie
- NoteCentric
- Notely
- NoteMesh
- Helipad
- iKnolio
- Luminotes
- Mojonote
- Notebook G
- Posti.ca
- SnapBits
- Stixy
- Ubernote
- Zoho Notebook
From the comments:
- Evernote
- Microsoft Thumbtack
- Yahoo Notepad
- Flynote
- Diigo
- NoteScribe
via 17 Noteworthy Alternatives To Google Notebook.
Here is a list of the top Online Note Apps ranked by traffic. Note that as every leading note taking application creates an iPhone or Android mobile note taking application, this category will become less and less relevant.
These are online notebooks for recording your personal notes and/or web clips. They are listed with monthly unique users as reported by Compete.com:
evernote.com — 191,447
diigo.com — 153,988
webasyst.net – 14,290
springnote.com — 14,266
sticky-notes.net — 7,955
notefish.com — 3,976
ubernote.com — 2,758
luminotes.com — 1,760
mynoteit.com — 944
fruitnotes.com — no data
noteclip.com — no data
notezz.com — no data
stikkit.com — out of business
These notebooks are parts of larger sites:
notepad.yahoo.com
notebook.google.com
notebook.zoho.com