It looks like Evernote has another competitor in the note-taking game. Though it was leaked only a few days ago, Google has officially lifted the curtain off its Google Keep note-taking service. Keep allows users to quickly jot down ideas, make checklists and voice notes, and archive important photos. Everything is then stored away in Google Drive, and it syncs to all of your Google-linked devices.

Like Evernote, you can also manage all of these notes and mental reminders with your browser or Android device. The Google Keep app is now available in Google Play for devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and up. You can also check out the service through your Google Drive account, though there is no explicit button available in drive accounts to get there at the moment (Google says it will provide one next week). You might get a few errors while trying to access the service through Google Drive (it took us a few tries before we were successful, presumably because of launch-day traffic), but the Android app worked nicely, and it features two new widgets with quick access buttons. There's also a lock screen widget for devices with Android Jelly Bean 4.2 and above.

Google Keep follows in the footsteps of the now-retired Google Notebook, which originally debuted back in 2006. The service was an online notebook for collecting “research and personal notes” like text, images, and links that users could then share with their friends. Notebook was eventually discontinued three years later, and other services have since sprung up with the similar functionality.

No word yet on what other services will sync with Google Keep.