googlekeepGoogle went public with its rumored Google Keep note-taking service this afternoon, creating new competition for Evernote, Microsoft OneNote and other note-taking apps. Google Keep is available on the web (as part of Google Drive) but this is clearly an Android-first experience, tailored for Google’s mobile operating system.

The free Android app is available here. No word yet from Google on when it will expand to other mobile platforms.

We’ve been trying Google Keep for the past half hour on a Galaxy S3, and it’s working well. Google’s impressive voice recognition technology is built into the app, making it extremely easy to take notes on the go by speaking into the phone. Notes sync relatively quickly to the Google Keep web app, although we have been seeing some error messages in the browser (presumably the service is a bit overloaded because of the launch).

This launch is interesting in part because the company has been giving the axe to many of its other services. Google previously offered a note-taking service called Google Notebook. Apparently note-taking is important enough to its broader strategy that the company is willing to bring it back.

Here’s a Google video outlining the features of the new app.

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