Google apparently has another product launch up its sleeve. According to leaked documents, the search giant is prepping a note-taking service, dubbed Google Keep.
As noted by Android Police, Carlos Jeurissen with IE100 did some digging in the source code of Google Drive and found a previously unreleased icon for something known as Keep. That code also suggests that the project is related to Drive, though it will likely get its own Android app.
Android Police, meanwhile, pointed to a July 2012 Google+ post, which included an image that (accidentally?) displayed the option to “Add to Google Keep.” The post in question was about Instant Preview on mobile, and made no direct mention of Google Keep. At least two people in the comments section noticed it, though.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This would not be Google’s first foray into note taking. In 2009, the company announced that it would stop active development on Google Notebook. By July 2012, the service shut down and all Notebook data was transferred to Google Docs.
“We loved working on Notebook, but sometimes we have to make the hard decision to focus more of our efforts on products and technologies that will yield the most benefit to users in the long run,” the company said at the time. “With all the great innovations and improvements to Google Docs in the last few years, we think it’s a great replacement for Notebook.”
You might recall that news of Google Drive leaked in a similar manner. In March 2012, TalkAndroid.com obtained leaked screen shots that tipped a service with 5GB of free storage. Google Drive finally made its debut in late April. For more, see PCMag’s review of Google Drive and Google Drive for iPad.
The report comes amidst news that Google will shut down its Google Reader RSS service as of July 1. The news has been met with anger across the Web, with online petitions cropping up left and right. One person who doesn’t seem to care, however, is the father of RSS, Dave Winer.