You got a project? Try gotProject

gotProject? is a new service aimed at helping people organizing bits and pieces of information found on the web.

It is clearly not the only player in this space, but it is the only one with a deep focus to “projects”; it is also one of the simplest and most intuitive to use. The service is in beta now, but all the basic functionalities are there and I haven’t found major problems.

gotProject? has two unique points:

• Desktop-like organization: Once you have created a project, you have an empty space where you can organize your snippets of information spatially, as you would do on your computer desktop;
• Flexible information clipper: Whenever you find a bit of information that you want to store, you only have to click on the clipper bookmarklet in your bookmark bar; the clipper allows you to store just the elements of the page that you want to keep (I found this easier to use and more powerful than other bookmarklets).

The workflow suggested by the application is classic: you have a simple and fast way to send all the interesting things that you find around in your inbox (the clipper); once you get to the application, you have an advanced yet simple way of organizing, editing, and processing what you have collected. Let’s take an example: you want to buy a new camera, and you need to decide which one is the best for you. While searching, you can store in gotProject? reviews, interesting forum threads, and official feature lists from the vendors’ Web sites.

Once you have collected all this information, you can view it all on a single page, move the different pieces around, and make your decision with all the elements in front of your eyes, in a way that makes sense to you.

The author of the site, Tommaso Buvoli, has already developed iPad and iPhone versions; the iPhone site is well adapted to the device. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to try the iPad version yet, as my iPad is still making its way to Singapore.

If you look for something more powerful and complete you can check Evernote, but the added flexibility and features come with a price: the learning curve is steeper and it takes some time to integrate the product in your workflow effectively. Moreover, Evernote doesn’t give you the same intuitive way of moving information around. If you are looking for a very simple way of organizing what you find on the web, you should definitely give gotProject? a look.