Evernote's business card scanning feature just got a whole lot cooler. Now, every time you take a picture of a business card, Evernote will scan the card and find the corresponding LinkedIn profile, adding that person's pertinent information. The new information, taken from both the business card and the person's LinkedIn profile, will become a new note on Evernote.
Although Evernote has had a business card scanning feature for a while, the LinkedIn connectivity is new. Previously, those who wanted LinkedIn connectivity alongside a business card scanner had to use LinkedIn's recent acquisition, CardMuncher. Needless to say, the service never took off the way LinkedIn planned, so it will now close on June 11.
CardMuncher users can now use the Evernote app to do the same thing in addition to all of Evernote's other cool features.
"We want to have a great user experience for business cards," Evernote CEO Phil Libin explained. "We both think it's a more valuable experience. The whole point of business cards is that they're a lot more than a contact record. In Evernote they become a bookmark in your life, with context."
The service works even if you are not connected with the person on LinkedIn yet.
"Benefitting from LinkedIn's network of more than 300 million professionals, Evernote can now automatically build a content-rich note around every business card you scan," the company wrote in a blog post. "With full contact information, a link to their current LinkedIn profile, and a photo, plus a section for notes, business cards become searchable contacts in Evernote."
Of course, the business scanning feature is a part of Evernote's paid subscription service, which costs $5 a month or $45 a year. Current Evernote users can try the feature out for free for one year, though. Currently, the Evernote Business Card Scanner is only available on iOS, Mac and Windows PCs, but it will soon arrive on Android and Windows Phone, too.
