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Evernote is in deep trouble

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Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#2
All I need is a good web clipper like evernote's Clearly, so that I can directly save cleaned webpage to a .doc file in a Dropbox folder. Still can't find one.

Also, why dropbox does not create a simple note taking app, just save notes to a dropbox folder?

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#3
post #2

All I need is a good web clipper like evernote's Clearly, so that I can directly save cleaned webpage to a .doc file in a Dropbox folder. Still can't find one. Also, why dropbox does not create a simple note taking app, just save notes to a dropbox folder?

If you don't need it to be a .doc, Google chrome allows you to save webpages to PDFs just by going to file > print[0] and it works quite well. The Evernote clipper worked pretty well IIRC, but either way you will have to edit the markup a bit to get the results on a very cluttered page. In a pinch though, chrome does a great job if you don't want to have evernote simply to clip pages.

[0]http://www.labnol.org/software/save-web-page-as-pdf/21153/

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#4
post #3
post #2

All I need is a good web clipper like evernote's Clearly, so that I can directly save cleaned webpage to a .doc file in a Dropbox folder. Still can't find one. Also, why dropbox does not create a simple note taking app, just save notes to a dropbox folder?

If you don't need it to be a .doc, Google chrome allows you to save webpages to PDFs just by going to file > print[0] and it works quite well. The Evernote clipper worked pretty well IIRC, but either way you will have to edit the markup a bit to get the results on a very cluttered page. In a pinch though, chrome does a great job if you don't want to have evernote simply to clip pages. [0] http://www.labnol.org/softwa…

Word allows you to open PDFs - so it can be edited and saved as anything you want.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#5
post #2

All I need is a good web clipper like evernote's Clearly, so that I can directly save cleaned webpage to a .doc file in a Dropbox folder. Still can't find one. Also, why dropbox does not create a simple note taking app, just save notes to a dropbox folder?

MS Edge does this and saves to onedrive.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#6
Products like this come and go. I don't know what the value of Evernote is. I've never been a power user. I prefer using Kippt ( sadly, also shut down ) + OS X Notes + Chrome's bookmarks + Google docs + Dropbox.

Doesn't feel like a company doing something so specialised can expect a real growth out of a product that isn't remarkably well done.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#7
It's interesting to me that EN is apparently in deep trouble partially because of buggy feature releases. Three days ago I wrote this comment in response to the last article about EN:

I wonder if they're experiencing feature creep because they've satisfied users of the core features. I use a program called Devonthink Pro according to this method: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002... and in some respects my use hasn't changed that much. I use syncing features and some other pieces, and maybe the engine has gotten a little better over time, but mostly I do what I did with it 10 years ago.

I wrote a little more about DTP here: http://jakeseliger.com/2010/11/12/scrivener-or-devonthink-pr... , though I understand that some people use Evernote differently than DTP.

Mostly it seems to me that DTP is very close to "feature complete," for lack of a better term.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#8
From this article, I have some of my software business beliefs validated:

- don't be afraid to charge money

- release frequent, small updates. Users tolerate this much better than infrequent big updates with major changes

- focus on quality. Every update should include several bug fixes. As much as possible, fix bugs before adding new features

- focus. Put all your eggs in one basket, to some extent.

- watch costs like a hawk. Operating in 10 locations sounds like Evernote let their costs get out of control.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#9
Evernote is only a weird bloated SaaS company (with hundreds of employees) because they followed the wrong business model.

Evernote should be more like Minecraft (Mojang). A cool piece of software that a handful of people develop but a billion people use. They would be wildly profitable and worth many billions to Microsoft and others.

Re: Evernote is in deep trouble

#10
Evernote is such a great idea and in its early stage, it showed a lot of promise as the "trapper keeper" of all things digital. But as time went on, the client became bloated and there were weird products like Evernote Food that were pushed on users.

I'm still using it for certain parts of my work, and I'm increasingly frustrated with the pop ups in the application every few days to upgrade to Evernote Premium.

Someone is going to make a product that looks a lot like Evernote that's going to succeed. But I think Evernote's best days are behind it.

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