Google is taking the note-taking experience to the next level by introducing its new service, Google Keep. It works in a similar fashion as Evernote allowing users to create notes and store them safely in the same cloud space, accessible from both desktop and mobile devices.

The Google Keep application can downloaded for an Android 4.0 (and above) phone or tablet from the Google Play store, or alternatively the service can be accessed online at Drive.Google.com/Keep. Stored within Google Drive, the notes sync across devices and platforms and can be created on the go.

Photo: Google Keep in an app (click to enlarge)

With Google Keep, users can create simple text notes and «enhance» them by adding photos and checklists. To make it easier to differentiate the notes by some particular categories such as theme, mood, importance, etc., users can add color to their reminders—there’s a palette of seven basic colors. For instance, if you associate work with blue, study with yellow, home with orange, shopping with green, etc., the themed notes can have a correspondent color touch. When displayed within Google Drive, notes on the wall get a colorful upper line, while the same notes on mobile and tablet screens are in color from the top to the bottom. There’s no length limit for the note.

As well as Evernote, Google allows to create voice notes—the service instantly transcribes speech into text. Notes can be also edited, deleted or archived, arranged for either list or grid view, and there’s also a search that helps find the notes “super fast.” In fact, there are not many features in Google Keep, but it’s not bad at all—thanks to this limited range of possibilities, the space will be relevant to the basic note-taking needs and won’t grow into another online diary service.

Watch the animated video below to see how Google Keep works.

Along with the introduction of new products, Google is getting rid of some old ones as part of the annual spring cleaning, started back in 2011. The web-based aggregating service, Google Reader, is set to be closed on July 1, 2013. In response to this move, the global online community has launched a petition campaign to save Google Reader. So far, nearly 138,000 users have already signed it, with 12,000 more needed.