I forgot to mention that I attended WebInno18 a couple of weeks ago. The event was packed, which made it difficult to find anyone, however one great thing that came from the conference was being introduced (via their presentation) to WebNotes.
Created by a bunch of MIT students in Cambridge, WebNotes enables users to “create and manage online annotations.” In the simplest terms WebNotes makes it easy to highlight text on any web page, save that text to a folder, add sticky notes and share those highlights & sticky notes (directly on the web page) with anyone you want. If you use the web for research, WebNotes is a terrific service for organizing your findings. Check them out at www.WebNotes.net.
In the last few weeks there has been a bunch of great tech events in Boston, including the WebInno mentioned above. Next on the list is SummerMash Boston (Mashable) which I’ll also be attending – hope to see you there.
Posted by Greg Kim on January 15, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Webnotes is a really great tool for clipping information from the net.
If you need something that helps you transcribe quickly (when copy/paste is not enough and you need to type something down), another online alternative is http://www.ayenotes.com. This is also useful for meetings as well as for students (not just online research).
If you want a pure text note taking solution that is absurdly quick, barebones, and focuses on data entry check out http://www.ayenotes.com for taking notes online.
AyeNotes was wired for text only notes – sort of the use you describe in your article. Its key feature is that it provides clips for frequently used strings. These can be templates you type, terms you use (action items, research, etc.), or it can be programmer-esque things like HTML and Markdown.
The site also autosaves work and provides keystroke commands. If you have the site remember your login, everytime you go to http://www.ayenotes.com to take notes online you are dropped right into the new note screen. To get your data out, you can email or download the note in multimarkdown format.