Micro Persuasion Gear: Yojimbo
The addition of CrunchGear to Michael Arrington's TechCrunch empire inspired me to launch a new semi-regular feature here called Micro Persuasion Gear. Every once in a while I will write about a tech-related product or service that I have either started to integrate into my workday or for some other reason has captured my attention. I mostly use Macs (as do 20% of my readers), however I recognize not everyone does so I will try to cover a range of stuff.
This week, however, I will zero in on the Mac and a product called Yojimbo from Bare Bones software. The Mac OS is blessed with a number of great "junk drawer" apps that help you capture notes, Web pages and other information. I have tried a few of these but Yojimbo is the best by far. For a similar app on the PC, check out Microsoft OneNote (Microsoft is an Edelman client.)
Yojimbo stores bookmarks, passwords, archived Web pages and pretty much anything you can throw at it. You can even send any document or email into Yojimbo by printing directly to it, instead of a printer. Once your information is filed away in Yojimbo you can tag items or file them away in virtual folders that are similar to iTunes playlists. Anything you archive in Yojimbo can be encrypted.
Where Yojimbo shines most though is in its adoption of two core Apple OS X technologies - Spotlight and .Mac Sync. From any application I can hit command-space to open Spotlight and find anything I have filed away in Yojimbo in an instant. More importantly, I absolutely love how Bare Bones has adopted Apple's .Mac. I have been a .Mac member for years, primarily using it as a way to back up and archive old files and to sync different Macs. Yojimbo can sync its entire database across multiple Macs, which is a godsend. Although some like Om Malik debate the value of .Mac when Google replicates many of its best features, sync and Backup keep me in the fold. (Another little known fact is that Safari can use .Mac to sync read/unread states for RSS feeds across multiple Macs.)
Anyway, to sum up, if you're on a Mac and you have lots of information that you want to file away and find later, check out Yojimbo. There's a free trial on the site. The product costs $39 and it can be installed on multiple Macs.
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