Ever wish you could easily leave yourself a note where you couldn’t lose it? Like in traffic, or other times when writing is difficult or impossible? I’ve been trying out a service called JottIt for a couple of days, and it has already proven valuable.

Still in beta, JottIt provides a toll-free number that you can call and leave yourself short (15 sec.) messages. While this is no big deal, the kicker is that JottIt emails your notes to you. You can also access them online in text or voice. This means that I can make notes via my Bluetooth link while in traffic on I-95 without taking my eyes off the road. I have a digital voice recorder for dictation, and another built into my Sony-Ericsson phone, but both require some handling and visual attention - more than I care to provide in the aforementioned circumstances. I don’t use them. I’ve used JottIt several times in the two days I’ve had it. Of course, in addition to the Interstate milieu, JottIt is just plain handy for other purposes.

You provide it with the phone number(s) you intend to use, an email address and a password, and program its number into your speed dial. It promises not to sell your information. During this early beta period I haven’t seen any advertising, but the business plan involves targeted ads to your emailed Jotts, a’ la Google AdSense.

But wait! That’s not all! You can also send Jotts to other folks’ email addresses, and to their phones as text messages. My wife and I text a lot for business reasons, and - while I haven’t used it yet - the ability to do so hands-free (and quickly) is bound to come in handy. The sign-up procedures for this are simple, as well.

All services are free at present. I don’t know if the business plan will allow for fee-based (and presumably ad-free) Jotts in the future, but who cares about ads? They’re only short notes, anyway, not for publication.

And that’s a good thing, because it brings me to the one real drawback of JottIt: voice recognition technology. You have to be pretty clear in your Jotts, so that if it messes up your transcription you can figure out what you were talking about. Spelling tricky words is an option. So far it’s gotten my daughter Deborah’s name as “Gabriel,” and a note “Pentels for the briefcase” came out as “Send Talus for the briefcase.” Apparently its VR system has a problem with my Southern accent, or something. While not a big deal with my own notes, it could be a bit disconcerting if I “Jottcast” to someone else. (It supposedly has live transcribers checking some of the stuff, but clearly not all of it, and if it’s outsourced, it may be no better at it than the software.) I can speak with a Silicon Valley accent when I feel like it, so I guess I’ll try that. ;)

With that caveat, I think this is a worthwhile effort on the company’s part and a service that you might find a place for in your day, as I seem to have done. There are some fairly heavy hitters behind it, and I suspect it will have legs. Check out JottIt. It’s neat.

[tags]Bill Webb, Bill’s Web, JottIt, Voice Recognition, Phone Notes[/tags]