I've used Yahoo! Calendar forever, preferring an online solution that I can access anywhere to Outlook or some other program that resides on the computer. While I remain loyal to Yahoo! in several departments, I believe that as of today I have used Yahoo! Calendar for the last time.
One of the beauties of Google's calendar is the intelligence it brings to the Quick Add feature; the inherent intuitiveness reminds me of Google Maps and Local. In all these cases, Google can take a word string that contains the user's essential need, and deliver the hoped-for result. So, a Quick Add of "lunch Jack, 4/22 1:30pm" embeds the appointment accurately in your calendar. With your settings loaded to spec, you'll get a Gmail pop-up reminder, or an e-mailed one. (Text messages can also be auto-sent as reminders, but with Verizon conspicuously and inexplicably missing from the provider list, I could not test this feature.)
Logged into Google Calendar through the Google account (which is keyed to the Gmail account), the user is invited to set up multiple calendars, and share them publicly or semi-privately. And if weaning yourself of an Outlook or iCal habit seems too wrenching, Google accepts imports of preexisting calendars in those formats.
The standard Day/Week/Month format is enhanced in Google by an Agenda view, which lists events in free-flowing style, off the calendar grid. A short-term view, set by the user for a certain number of days, keeps the near future in clear focus.
The site is clickalicious, springing to life with each mouse bite. In fact -- perhaps the page's responsiveness is somewhat oversensitive, but that's Web 2.0 for ya. I definitely prefer the speed of 2006-style interactive coding to the clunkiness of static calendar pages.
The upshot? Yahoo! -- it's your move. Google just hit a grand slam, and you're down four runs. Try Google Calendar here. Check out numerous screen shots (74 and counting) of Google Calendar here on Flickr.
21. I've switched my personal email to Gmail, and last month switched my business email to Gmail For Your Domain. It finally does everything I need, and it's the best product available. Not to mention it's free.
And I'm ready to switch everything to Google Calendar right now, except I can’t use it for business -- it won’t sync with Outlook and it doesn’t work with Gmail For Your Domain.
Like a lot of people, I use Outlook as the desktop client, POPing my email from Gmail For Your Domain. I’m not giving up Outlook, and there’s no way to sync Outlook events with Google Calendar. Sure, I could do a one-time export from Outlook, but then what about the next meeting I add or change?
Seems to me that Google Desktop already has an Outlook Addin (Tools>Options>Other>Advanced>COM Addins) that watches for email sent and received to index in Desktop. Would it be that hard to extend the existing Desktop addin to sync appointments with Calendar?
If I try to keep a business calendar and a personal calendar in two different places my life would be chaos. Bi-directional integration with Outlook has got to be a top priority.
Oh, and what about opening up Google Calendar to us users of Gmail For Your Domain?
... oh, wait ... before posting this comment I checked the Hosted Gmail faq, and Calendar is in the works: https://www.google.com/hosted/FAQ#12
Work out the Outlook sync, and this will be killer app.
Posted at 9:28PM on Apr 14th 2006 by Mahlon