Enolate ions are more useful than enols for two reasons. First, pure enols can't normally be isolated but are instead generated only as short lived intermediates in low concentration. By contrast, stable solutions of pure enolate ions
are easily prepared from most carbonyl compounds by reaction with a strong base. Second, enolate ions are more reactive than enols and undergo many reactions that enols don't. Whereas enols are neutral, enolate ions are negatively charged, making them much better nucleophiles. As a result, enolate ions are more common than enols in both laboratory and biological chemistry.
Because they are resonance hybrids of two nonequivalent forms, enolate ions can be looked at either as vinylic alkoxides (C=C- O) or as α-ketocarbanions (C-C= O). Thus, enolate ions can react with electrophiles either on oxygen or on carbon. Reaction on oxygen yields an enol derivative, while reaction on carbon yields an α-substituted carbonyl compound. Both kinds of reactivity are known, but reaction on carbon is more common.