Confirming earlier reports, Google on Thursday unveiled a new note-taking app named Google Keep. But, despite its obvious promise, Web watchers appear to be approaching Keep with caution.   “It is a good thing that Google has decided to compete with the likes of Evernote -- it validates their market,” writes GigaOm’s Om Malik. “But I still won’t use Keep. You know why? Google Reader,” Malik said, refereeing to Google’s soon-to-be slashed aggregation service. In other words, “Given Google's ambivalent history with note-taking services, and the recent, high-profile sunsetting of Google Reader, users may be reluctant to record all their …

In what Web watchers are calling a long-overdue integration, Netflix has finally tapped Facebook to offer social sharing features to its U.S. subscribers. “With about $5 billion in long-term content obligations, [Netflix CEO Reed Hastings] is counting on the social component to increase word-of-mouth about Netflix’s growing digital library,” Bloomberg reports. “Social is going to be everything,” Hastings told Bloomberg in January. Now, “Netflix users in the U.S. can [soon] reveal their viewing habits and tastes to their Facebook friends,” CNet reports. “Ever wanted to know what your former college roommates are watching on Netflix?” GigaOm asks. …

Andrew Mason is out at Groupon. Yes, after another disappointing quarter -- which sent the deal site’s stock price plunging, this week -- the company’s board has finally given the young founder and CEO notice. Ultimately, Mason “failed to reverse a crumbling share price and gradual erosion of [Groupon’s] daily deals business,” Reuters reports. Groupon’s decline has been so gradual, in fact, that “the departure of founder Mason has been speculated about for quite some time,” Business Insider notes. Indeed, along with a reputation for being wacky and unpredictable, Mason “has been on a short leash after the …