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."

Wild Guess

[Kickboy12]

I'm guessing this will be one, of posssibly many, new things Google will be releasing April 1st. Knowing Google's history for releasing things on this date, it seems logical.

Security? We've heard of it...

[__aatgod8309]

Well, with only 200 participants it does make finding the source of the leak noticably easier...

Re:Why?

[timeOday]

The next question is how to synchronize your google calendar information with the cellphone, pda, or latop.

In a perfect (or even reasonably sane) world, all platforms and programs would freely exchange XML calendar records. But who am I kidding? That would be too easy. In my world, a PocketPC can't even reliably synchronize calendar information with Outlook.

Re:Too much stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, those Google mail and map sites didn't really pan out, did they.

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

Tinfoil Hat On-Check

[core plexus]

" Well, with only 200 participants it does make finding the source of the leak noticably easier..."

You're assuming that someone from google didn't leak it.

It's been said that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Making something 'secret' only adds to the interest.

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Personal Security

[TubeSteak]

Everyone is saying "the point is so that you can access your calendar from anywhere."

Whatever happened to the popular Slashdot meme: Don't access [Online Service that requires a password] from public places?

About the only places I would consider 'secure' are home, work, or a friend's house. And I wouldn't be so sure about the friend's house, because some of my friends are sneaky bastards like that.

Taking the Calendar away from a fixed computer, or appt. book or laptop/pda seems like it'll encourage people to check their schedule everywhere. Because, if the point is not to check it anywhere, then why not keep your schedule with you? Home ---> work doesn't seem very troublesome to me.

Re:Why?

[Jussi K. Kojootti]

Amen. Calendar interoperability and network access is appallingly poor.

Finally there is (at least in theory) an answer: CalDAV [webdav.org]. It's big and complex, but there seems to be some real progress in implementing it, just take a look at the interoperability testing events/reports.

Then again, you mentioned Outlook... Just forget everything I said.

cool

[l3v1]

I will really like this. Mail, chat and calendar all in one place, with a nice interface and enough storage. I usually do work from 3 different places, from 4 computers, and accessing everything from Gmail will be a fine indeed, easier than always synch.ing calendars, and sometimes forgetting to do so. What we could spend quite an amount of time talking about would be privacy and security related issues, but I'm willing to lower some bars if this thing will be as functional as I expect it to be.
 

Re:Why?

[jlarocco]

Why XML? vCal is already a standardized calendar format that works with Outlook, Mozilla Sunfire, and many others. It's not a buzzword like XML, but other than that, it usually works well.

Hmm...

[Jords]

It's really getting fairly old 'leaking' screenshots etc to raise some easy hype :D But anyway, this calandar program looks neat! Maybe if they stopped adding new features every week gmail could come out of "Beta" (ie, if it stuffs up don't bitch to us) sometime this century.

Doesn't have to be that way.

[zCyl]

Google COULD, if they want to, have a calendaring system in which the data is encrypted the entire time it is in transit, and the entire time it is stored on their systems, and only decrypted locally by a java applet within the browser of the user accessing the data. They could also still support this with advertising, and people would be more inclined to use it with the knowledge that their data would be safe.

Do you think businesses are going to want their employees scheduling confidential meetings on a calendaring system which Google has full access to? But if it were fully encrypted and only accessed by password locally, this would suddenly be a potent and secure tool which makes the PDA a lot less useful in a networked world.

Re:Why?

[jthayden]

Or we could just remember things and think for ourselves. Nahhh, that would never work.

Re:Personal Security

[cluke]

You make a good point, but it seems like more and more apps are moving to remote web based clients (somewhat ironically, given the massive advances in CPU speeds), the advantages being "run anywhere nd on anything that has a decent browser". I read somewhere that this is really making Microsoft crap themselves (them wanting us to use .NET, or at the very least a Windows app), and speculation that this was why they didn't update IE for so long to try and stem the tide (didn't work, maybe thanks to Firefox?)

A lot of this is maybe to do with the decreasing cost of storage. I mean, a website that hosted video files for you would have been unthinkable even only 2 years ago.

It's about time

[kopo]

It's amazing - just a day or two ago, I was thinking how convenient it would be to have a calendar in Gmail, rather than have my schedule sitting in Outlook on my home desktop and doing nothing.
And now it turns out they're working on it.

And just a few months ago, I was hoping that Google would make an Israel version of Google News - and that came out on Tuesday, and looks great.

How often does it happen that a company consistently puts out programs and services that you'd wanted to use before they made them?

Re:Too much stuff

[slonkak]

Google does everything better, end of story. First there was Infoseek, now Google Search. First there was Mapquest, now there's Google Maps. First there was Hotmail, now there is GMail. Each time Google enters a market, they make a better product than what is currently available. When they stop doing stuff better than everyone else, then I'll stop using their services.

Re:Too much stuff

[SWroclawski]

Actually, Google Talk has been a very successful product in ways you wouldn't expect.

When I first went to non-technical friends about Google Talk they all said they wouldn't switch to it, they already had AOL.

I use it in Gaim, and when friends log on to get thier mail in Gmail, I can talk to them. It's proven very helpful.

Instead of taking the other IM companies on head on, they're going for a smarter approach.

Re:Too much stuff

[Fahrenheit 450]

Meh. I don't get the love of google maps.

I mean the satellite option is neat and all, but the speed pretty much sucks if you use that option, the interface is lousy (typing everything in one entry field may appeal to some, not to me), and the direction finding algorithm can sometimes give plenty crap results (like routing a drive from Albuquerque to Cleveland through Denver and Omaha rather than the much shorter straight shot through Oklahoma and Missouri.

About the only thing that they do better than, say Yahoo maps is the panning and zooming control of their maps.