calendar.google.com is live and it offers a tour which shows some sweet integration of slick, stable components. If you already run a calendar like 30 Boxes or if you work in a group calendar environment, you might not see the big difference in switching to Google Calendar. I use Yahoo! calendar and that works on my mobile so it would take a lot of bells and whistles on a mobile phone screen to pull me into Google Calendarland. The Google Calendar runs fast on Ajax. It does not run on either my Nokia N70 or my Nokia 9500 because its heavy Javascripting confuses those lightweight browsers. However, you can set up Google Calendar to send even reminders and notifications to your mobile phone if you have a stateside carrier. Adding an event is as easy as typing “Irish Blog Awards at 1900” and Calendar structures the data properly and places a correct calendar entry. This entry can be dragged around the screen to a new day or time. A quick look at features:
1. Smart Text. In adding an event, or detecting a new event from Gmail, Calendar automatically detects event-specific words and suggests the adding of a new event with data auto-structured.
2. Manages Multiple Calendars. You can have a public calendar, a work calendar, a room calendar and view them separately or together.
3. Gmail integration. If you have Gmail, your email recognizes when messages include event information. This mean you can add events in your mail to Google Calendar with just a couple clicks on the right side of the Gmail page.
4. Sharing. Easy with others, directly or through subscriptions--Atom XML file format. You can control read/write permissions down to the gnat's ass. You can publish your calendars via a web page or via RSS, so readers do not need to be on the Google Calendar platform. This openess will make Google Calendar the world's viral calendar.
6. Importing. You can import events from other calendar programs, including Yahoo Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.
7. Calendar Search. This is Google. Everything inside Google's product line is searchable.
John Brennan -- "Google Calendar Unveiled"
Bonus Link: Interesting Google Calendars
