What is Roam Research?

No, it’s not about the backlinks

Some say it is a note-taking app with the power of backlinks. Others say that its main distinction is its transclusion properties. There is who says that the outline is the core of its mechanism. Or the unlinked references. The graph visualization. The networked thoughts. The potential to build a second thought. The free-form supporting the emerging structure.

Let me differ. The reason why Roam is a game-changer app in its category is the graph database. No, not the graph visualization of your notes. A graph database is a very technical concept. But once you understand it, the power of Roam Research is evident.

First, let’s ask Roam Research, who are you?

“A note-taking tool for networked thought” is the marketing definition on the landing page. One rule of marketing is to categorize your product. Every product belongs to a previously defined category of similar products. Then, the product needs to flag the differences.

Screenshot from roamreserach.com webpage

When a product is too innovative or “nothing that you have seen before” it can be difficult to categorize it. But you should do it because, besides other reasons, a category is a gate to understand what kind of product it is.