Do You Dare Try Google Keep?
Search giant launches Evernote competitor right after killing Google Reader
I like the last paragraph of this TechHive story about Google Keep, a new service for storing random data meant to compete with products like Evernote.
In light of Google killing off its Google Reader RSS service this past week, will anyone really want to trust Google to keep its random notes alive?
As the TechHive article asks: “If you hesitate to embrace Keep after watching Google shed services like Notebook and Reader, you probably won’t be alone.” No kidding. When it comes to using cloud services, I think the No. 1 question (especially for business-related data) should be, is this provider going to stick around? Though Google isn’t in danger of closing its doors, the company’s willingness to try new things and then kill them off should produce a healthy amount of caution.
I think it’s all about whether or not the product or service in question is key to the company’s profit stream or core survival. So Gmail, for example, is not in any danger of going away. And if you think Evernote will survive as a company, you can probably use its products confidently. But when it comes to new cloud services, it makes sense to wade in cautiously.