Google accidentally reveals new note-taking app

Google Keep made brief appearance Sunday before being taken down

Google has spent the last couple of years or so cleaning out a ton of old projects, most recently jettisoning Google Reader, along with a bunch of other services, in an effort to streamline the company. That does not mean, though, that Google will be putting a stop to its efforts to create new projects to fill some of the void left in that wake. And one area that Google may have accidentally revealed that it is getting ready to get back into is the note-taking space.

Google Keep, the company's new Evernote-like note taking app, went live on Sunday, it was reported by Android Police. Unfortunately for Google, the move seems like it was made by accident as Google Keep was taken down as quickly as it went up. Looks like someone hit the wrong button!

Luckily, though, Google was not able to take it down before some screenshots were grabbed:

So what does Google Keep do, exactly?

It gives users list of notes, allowing them to color-code the note, save pictures, make checklists, and archive notes, which will send them to a section at the bottom of their list. Users are given both a list view and a thumbnail view of their notes. Google also included a search bar, for users to search within their notes.

As Android Police pointed out, Google Keep acts a lot like the now defunct Google Notebook. It was discontinued in July 2012, and all of its data transferred to Google Drive, which is where Google Keep seems destined to land, as it was made available at https://drive.google.com/keep earlier in the day (the link now brings you to a 404 message).

Earlier on Sunday, Android Police had reported on a source code that a Google+ user had found, which revealed that Google was working on the Google Keep app.

The idea behind Google Keep has apparently been around for a while, as Google accidentally revealed the existance of Keep in a screenshot on an official Google+ blogpost in July 2012.

A new note-taking app could be a big deal for Google, as note-taking seems to be a hot property these days. Evernote, for example, raised a $70 million Series D round of funding at a $1 billion valuation in May 2012. It has a customer base of at least 48 million, and, for the past four years, Evernote has seen its revenue triple year-to-year.

It's easy to see why Google would want to get in on a space like that, and the company has some nice advantages going forward, including a slew of already established products. It could eat into the note-taking marketshare simply by integrating its note-taking app into its already popular products, like Google+, Gmail, Google Now, Google Calendar and its mobile apps. 

Here are the rest of the screenshots that were grabbed:

Google could not be reached for further comment about when Google Keep may go live permanently. 

(Image source: https://www.androidpolice.com)