Andrew Miller

Evernote is a service that lets people take notes, clip webpages, and make lists.  In this respect, it is quite an ordinary service, and it joins the legion of student design projects and lukewarm startups trying to help people “get things done.” But its true worth is as a study of the future of software: multi-platform, mobile, and constantly updated.

This in some ways is an extension of a process that began with the shift away from software-as-artifact.  When applications were primarily delivered in physical containers and installed into computers, adding functionality to a particular machine required attention and preparation.  This is still true for domain-specific programs like video-editing suites; the user must be prepared to restart the computer at least once, and will often set aside time for the installation process.  Sometimes an IT admin is required to get everything working correctly.

In contrast, the software-as-a-service model championed by Google and others eliminates installation requirements, local configuration (although enabling “offline mode” for these applications does still feel like an installation process) and frees users from ties to a single computer.  Users of Google Docs, for example, can access and edit their documents on multiple computers without separate installs.  I myself have used this feature to take work documents home without lugging my work laptop.

Although software-as-a-service has yet to catch on with many people (just one look at the sales figures of MS Office should be all you need) offerings like Evernote point to an evolution of the concept even before it’s reached mass adoption: software-as-a-platform.

Evernote is certainly not the first “software platform.”  I’d credit that to a service like GMail, which is accessible as a web app, through POP and IMAP interfaces (essentially email APIs), several versions of mobile web app (WAP, static mobile HTML, Javascript-enabled HTML, iPhone-specific HTML), mobile Java app (for phones like Nokia’s E and N series), low-end web interface, and probably a bunch that I’m not aware of. I bet it even works over SMS. All I need to know is that GMail works on any device I’d happen to want to use it with.

And that’s the point. We are in the middle of a (wait for it) modular decomposition inflection point in personal computing.  Instead of the original vision of ubiquitous computing, in which computers are embedded in everyday objects and networked computing recedes into the background, we seem to be working with ever more explicit computing devices.  We have our pocket communicator, perhaps a work computer, maybe a home media server, a DVR, maybe a netbook perhaps? This is starting off in higher-income households, but the proliferation of domain-specific computing devices is infiltrating all levels.

EverNote is a particularly interesting example because while GMail took an existing function (social messaging) and ported it to every platform, EverNote is trying something much more ambitious.  From the way they describe themselves, they seem to be trying to allow you to capture, store and annotate anything that is of interest to you, and access it from any device you may wish to, even those not connected to a network at present. EverNote allows users to upload webpages, photos, to-do lists, etc. and view them on any computer or mobile device. On the iPhone, for example, users can take a photo and upload it on the go, check items off a to-do list, or start a new note. Then everything is synced to all versions, be they the website or the OS-specific downloadable application.  Users of the application can even use EverNote while offline, and then the changes are synced with the central server when the computer has network access again.  The platform is flexible enough that you could write a novel on it if you wanted.

I think EverNote is just the first. All sorts of things that we never thought of as “software” will mingle with functions we thought would never escape the desktop.  Our data will exist on individual devices, but also on servers coordinating the devices.  We’ll be able to get our work (or play) done even when we switch off the wifi (this generation’s “leave the phone off the hook”) and then sync it again when we find a signal.  We’ll be more connected than ever, and we’ll love it. Neal Stephenson was right.