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Post-Its, Evernote teaming up in sticky new exploit

The venerable paper stickies are entering the Web era by way of a new software partnership with the note-taking app Evernote.

Richard Nieva Former senior reporter
Richard Nieva was a senior reporter for CNET News, focusing on Google and Yahoo. He previously worked for PandoDaily and Fortune Magazine, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, on CNNMoney.com and on CJR.org.
Richard Nieva

Looks like Post-It notes are still a sticky idea, even in the digital age.

The note-taking software service Evernote, and 3M, the company behind the venerable paper stickies, are joining forces to introduce software that will easily recognize pictures of Post-Its, so users can organize and store them digitally.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the software will be able to pick up on the signature bright colors of Post-Its and be able to categorize them in different ways. For example, the Journal notes, pink ones can be designated for shopping lists. "Paperless as a concept is stupid," Evernote CEO Phil Libin told the Journal. "The goal is to get rid of stupid uses of paper."

3M will begin to sell Post-Its with Evernote's elephant-head logo on the packaging, plus, for a limited time, offer upgrades to the premium version of Evernote's software. The two companies will share revenue of both Post-It sales and app downloads.

Surprisingly, the digital note-taking market has been heating up of late, with products popping up from formidable competitors. Last week, the cloud storage company Box introduced note-taking software similar to Evernote. And Simplenote, an early note-taking application, has revamped its offerings.

Evernote is set to begin its yearly conference in San Francisco tomorrow, which will run through Friday.