The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote • Hacker News Board

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#31

Post by mintplant » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:01 AM UTC

georgiecasey wrote: post #24

mintplant wrote: post #9

So what's the alternative to Evernote? The article lists Google Docs, which doesn't really seem equivalent, and OneNote. I'm using OneNote right now to organize planning for a media/writing project, and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The writing interface in particular is clunky, in the web client and on Android -- on my phone, I have to pop open a menu and then a drawer just to switch bold text on or off…

you aware of Google Keep?

I just tried it, actually. It looks kind of nice, but doesn't seem to support any real organization, beyond maybe color-coding notes. The lack of support for text formatting isn't great, either.

Seems like it would work well for day-to-day tasks or reminders, but it's lacking the power that Evernote or OneNote have for structured projects.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#32

Post by jpatokal » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:02 AM UTC

What on earth is this trying to say?

Evernote, located in Redwood City, CA, and directly on the 101, is a bit north of the tech companies that dot Silicon Valley and far south of those that have headquarters in San Francisco. In other words, Evernote isn't exactly on its own in terms of tech-oriented neighbors that it competes with for talent.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#33

Post by shard972 » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

ryanmarsh wrote: post #22

Evernote lost some of my data, which is like a money market fund breaking the buck. You just can't allow that to happen. If you do you'll get carried out. Twitter could lose a few of my tweets and it wouldn't matter, you lose my valuable notes? GTFO I should add that I was a paying customer. I was already struggling with the crappy UI and looking for an alternative when the data loss happened. For a while I tried dif…

It's microsoft, of course they won't lose it. They could just ask the NSA for a copy.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#34

Post by fsloth » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:05 AM UTC

dylanjermiah wrote: post #17

arghbleargh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that engagement seems to be waning from a lot of Evernote users (based on this anecdatum and the article). Is it because the product has gotten actively worse, or do you find less need to use it these days (e.g. you realized it was more hassle than it was worth)?

Not worse, just not any better. The use case was, for me, fragmented into many other services. Evernote was sort of my second brain before, not any more.

What services do use instead of Evernote?

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#35

Post by hkmurakami » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:09 AM UTC

jpatokal wrote: post #32

What on earth is this trying to say? Evernote, located in Redwood City, CA, and directly on the 101, is a bit north of the tech companies that dot Silicon Valley and far south of those that have headquarters in San Francisco. In other words, Evernote isn't exactly on its own in terms of tech-oriented neighbors that it competes with for talent.

They should have just said, "just South of Oracle".

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#36

Post by Jipha » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:10 AM UTC

ryanmarsh wrote: post #22

Evernote lost some of my data, which is like a money market fund breaking the buck. You just can't allow that to happen. If you do you'll get carried out. Twitter could lose a few of my tweets and it wouldn't matter, you lose my valuable notes? GTFO I should add that I was a paying customer. I was already struggling with the crappy UI and looking for an alternative when the data loss happened. For a while I tried dif…

You can set up automatic backups on OneNote.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#37

Post by kalleboo » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:12 AM UTC

jpatokal wrote: post #32

What on earth is this trying to say? Evernote, located in Redwood City, CA, and directly on the 101, is a bit north of the tech companies that dot Silicon Valley and far south of those that have headquarters in San Francisco. In other words, Evernote isn't exactly on its own in terms of tech-oriented neighbors that it competes with for talent.

I thought what it was saying was the talent pool they're competing for is sapped both by SF-based companies and Valley-based companies. But rereading it that doesn't make sense either...

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#38

Post by kalleboo » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:16 AM UTC

inopinatus wrote: post #14

If the original author reads this; I found the combination of webkit anti-aliasing with a thin body weight to be instantly eye-strain-inducing, and the deliberate hiding of scroll bars even on non-mobile viewports made for a persistent sense of unease.

Reader mode seems to work fine on this blog.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#39

Post by Jipha » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:16 AM UTC

mintplant wrote: post #9

So what's the alternative to Evernote? The article lists Google Docs, which doesn't really seem equivalent, and OneNote. I'm using OneNote right now to organize planning for a media/writing project, and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The writing interface in particular is clunky, in the web client and on Android -- on my phone, I have to pop open a menu and then a drawer just to switch bold text on or off…

I use WorkFlowy (YC S10). It's not as robust as Evernote or OneNote and updates are lacking, but it's pretty flexible and works for my needs. Text-only.

Re: The first dead Unicorn will be Evernote

#40

Post by mark_l_watson » Tue, Sep 15, 2015, 6:18 AM UTC

Doesn't it seem nasty to claim that a large established company may go out of business? Just the claim can hurt their business.

Evernote is fairly useful. I pay the minimum amount above the free tier. I enjoy the product but I only use it perhaps 10 minutes a day, on average.