Google's New Calendar CL2

pvt_medic writes "Google is apparently working on its own calendar (CL2) program to integrate with Gmail. The closed beta is ongoing with about 200 participants - people involved are not allowed to invite outsiders to see the calendar and are under strict rules not to share any details with outsiders. Here are some leaked photos of the CL2."

Re:Why?

[Nosklo]

Share commitments? Find out about events and add them? See what other people will do?

Re:Why?

[SillySnake]

Access to it anywhere you have an internet connection. Not everyone has a laptop or pda. Typing events on a cell phone is slow. The other time we've used one is when we share a calendar at work.. say if one of us is covering interviews for another, we'll use an online calender to prevent overlaps.

Re:Why?

[QuantumG]

The same reason people use groupware. They want to be able to easily schedule events with others.

Mirror

[Shimdaddy]

I found the page was a little slow, so before it goes down completely, here are the screenshots. Also works for the lazy. 1 [imageshack.us] 2 [imageshack.us] 3 [imageshack.us] 4 [imageshack.us] 5 [imageshack.us] 6 [imageshack.us] 7 [imageshack.us] 8 [imageshack.us] 9 [imageshack.us] 10 [imageshack.us]

Groupware BAD, Calendars USEFUL

[Chris Pimlott]

This reminds me a interesting article JMZ wrote on the subject of groupware [jwz.org]. It's worth reading just for the quote "How will this software get my users laid", but it's got some good points that are relevant here. I daresay Google's been reading it too.

With their talents and GMail's strengths, it looks like they're ready to come out with just what JMZ is proposing. Which may make Hula [hula-project.org] dead in the water, but we'll just have to wait and see...

Offtopic (but not...)

[IANAAC]

Has anybody tried Caledarhub (http://www.calendarhub.com [calendarhub.com]? What sets Google apart from this? I was a pretty staunch Yahoo calendar user until I found Caldarhub.

URL

[degraeve]

http://www.google.com/cl2 [google.com] yields a login prompt that says:
"Sign in to Google CL2 with your Google Account"

Sweet

[pato101]

Now we need to find out how to share/copy/integrate/syncronize this calendar with Evolution.

Wow, too late, seems that they are offering ICAL format :-))

What AJAX library does Google use?

[wysiwia]

What I'd like to know is what AJAX library they use. Does Google build its own library and do they plan to release it to the public (OpenSource) or do they use another? I guess they don't use Yahoo's library and probably also not Zimbra's, so what else?

I'm starting to use the Dojo toolkit (http://dojotoolkit.org/ [dojotoolkit.org]) which might become the top free AJAX library. See my first easy samples "tree?.html" at (http://wyoguide.sf.net/test/ [sf.net].

O. Wyss

Re:Awesome!

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? yahoo has that facility too. it has had it for more than 3-4 years now. (could be longer don't remember) why dont u complain about it? just because bashing google or MS or FF is almost a fashion? i use my yahoo calendar for social life (like b'days and bill due dates and family events) and outlook at work. and will use Galendar when it is available.

Re:URL

[rathehun]

Ah - well, but it says that it's an invalid page if you try and login.
Nice try though.

Re:What AJAX library does Google use?

[jaiyen]

They use this one - http://goog-ajaxslt.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

Re:Execute Only?

[Barsema]

For that matter, how easy is it now to connect our own Jabber networks to Google's version?

It should 'just work' [google.com]

Re:The great mysteries of Google.

[Simon Brooke]

Oh please. Everything Google's doing today has been done before, and better, by Apple.

Let's see:

• Web search?
• Image search?
• Usenet archiving/search?
• Web mail with integrated search?
• GIS, satelite imagery?
• Anything?

No, thought not.

The original host appears to be down

[James_Duncan8181]

The original host is down, so I have taken my life and bandwidth allowance in my hands and stuck a mirror up. http://jaduncan.net/google-calendar-cl2-leaked-pic tures [jaduncan.net]

Re:Too much stuff

[Call Me Black Cloud]

What web site do you use for search, by the way?

Google isn't the only game in town and isn't necessarily the best. I've been using Yahoo mostly and Google when I need to search newsgroups. I use A9 a couple of times a day (yes, I know the results come from Google) to get the Amazon discount.

Recently, though, I've been using Windows Live [live.com]...the UI is outstanding (no more pages...just one continuous scroll through all the results - I expect to see Google adopt it) and the results are very good. I close all the portal-like features (news, mail) so I'm presented with a nice, uncluttered screen.

And yet

[WindBourne]

everything that they have released (excluding gtalk), has beat all the others.

• Their search engine is superior.
• gmail was the first with Gig storage; It also has the superior interface.
• Maps is killing mapquest and microsoft's stuff. Mapquest has been dieing for a bit, but over the last couple of years it has been put into the ground.
• Gtalk is so so. Nothing inovative, other than using jabber (the first that talks to all the others).

And now they bought Writely.

Dollar for Dollar, I would expect good things from their calendar.

Correct me if I'm wrong..

[sean.peters]

But isn't vCal just a way to send calendar events between calendars? I didn't think it could actually synchronize, say, the calendar on your phone with with the one on your desktop. If, for example, you sent an appointment from your desktop calendar to your phone with vCal, then changed the desktop instance of the appointment, there'd be no way to synchronize that change with the phone using vCal - you'd have to delete the appointment from your phone and send the updated instance (again) from your desktop... right?

Sean

Re:Too much stuff

[Korgan]

Google Talk is a full Jabber app, but with voice added as well. XMPP alone should increase its rankings as a good app.

The interface is clean, simple, uncluttered and very straight forward and easy to use. The integration with Gmail is far and away the best Web conversion I have ever seen of any IM client. MSN Webmessenger and the web version of Yahoo! Messenger are no where near close to being as good as the Gmail Chat version of Google Talk.

Then consider that any Jabber network can chat with people using Google Talk. If you are connected via jabber.org (or any other Jabber network) you can chat with gtalk users just by adding them to your list. Don't need to use any extra protocols or plugins.

Then consider the future proofing of using XMPP over creating yet another IM protocol. XMPP is exceptionally modular and the clients talk to the servers in exactly the same language that the servers talk to each other in. So adding new services/features on the server side won't always require a client upgrade. Not to mention that XMPP is unburdened by patent issues and the license is pretty damn good by most people's opinion.

Also consider connecting with the other networks. Google will be able to easily implement the shared connection with AOL simply because all thats required is a plugin on the server side. The client wouldn't need to be upgraded. If in future MSN and Yahoo! decide to stop trying to hedge their share of the IM pie, communication with their networks would also be exceptionally easy.

Jabber has a huge following in the corporate environment. Businesses like it because they can control it to meet their own policies. This is also especially true of financial organisations. Now those organisations can extend their network to chat with Google Talk connected clients/partners/associates without having to give up that control internally.

Google Talk is a fantastic step in the right direction and the fact that Google even donated libjingle to the Jabber community as a whole means that everyone has gotten something beneficial out of it. I don't doubt Google will offer more in the future too.

And none of this mentions the fact that even though Google is very much an advertising company, there is no advertising at all in the Google Talk client. Not even Microsoft, AOL or Yahoo! can make that claim. They're not even primarily advertising companies in the way Google is.

Google Talk is more than just a simple or bland client. I gave up using all others when it was released simply because of how clean the interface is. I don't need graphical smilies or useless animations in my chats. They don't convey anything I cant achieve with old school text emoticons in the first place.

I logged in to MSN Messenger the other day for the first time in a long while. I wanted to send a message to my cousin in a different city who doesn't use Gmail. I was absolutely taken back by how cluttered the interface is. So many features of no value at all. Many of which can't even be turned off. Not to mention how bulky the interface just 'felt'. It was like going from a sports car back to a family sedan.

No thanks. I'll take Google Talk over any other vendor client on the market today. I even prefer it over the old favourites like GAIM and its like.

Re:Why?

[generic-man]

No, it doesn't. I've invited Outlook users to meetings by sending invites generated from iCal (Mac OS X). The messages show up as totally empty in Outlook or have directions like "Click the link below" that mean nothing to non-iCal-users. Likewise, I've had Outlook users who chose "When sending calendar invites over the Internet, use iCalendar format" send me calendar invites over the intranet and they arrived in TNEF format (winmail.dat). iCal seems to play nice with Evolution and other non-Outlook programs, though.