Like many people, I often find myself with a dozen open browser tabs and countless bookmarks as I plan trips or comb through reviews for a new gadget.
It’s amazing I haven’t discovered online note-taking until now. Yahoo gets credit for introducing me to that concept with a new, automated service, though I ultimately found others that are more versatile and powerful — most notably, Evernote.
Bookmarks suddenly seem rudimentary. All they’ll do is point you back to a previously visited Web site.
The Web-based note-taking services, on the other hand, let you zero in on specific passages and entries within a Web site. The programs also let you keep a copy of information in case it disappears from the original site. And the collections are stored online and can be shared with friends.
I can see using them to keep track of summer events, hobbies, nutritional advice and more, replacing my clunky system of e-mailing myself tidbits or storing them on documents I’d never find later.
Yahoo Inc.’s new Search Pad tries to automate all that, which ends up being its chief advantage and its chief shortcoming.
As I searched on Yahoo for free kayaking opportunities, Yahoo began remembering the links I clicked on and compiled them for me. I didn’t have to turn the feature on or do anything else. To access the links, all I had to do was hit “View Notes” on the upper right corner of the search page.
From there, I can delete irrelevant links or add notes next to each, by typing my own reminders or pasting highlights copied from the Web site. I can save them to my Yahoo account to continue research later.
I can also manually add information from sites I find on my own, rather than through Yahoo’s search.
Once I paste a short passage, Yahoo combs through…