Google Calendar

rickyb writes "After months of rumors and speculation, Google Calendar is now live. It features integration with Gmail, full iCal support, and a bunch of other goodies I'm just starting to discover. The wait is over!"

Cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

But does anyone know how I can sync it with my Palm Pilot?

GooCal not very responsive right now :-|

[Adult film producer]

I logged on this morning and created a new calendar, made a few screenshots here [flickr.com]. Looks nice, didn't see much in the way of gmail integration but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.

iCal compatible

[dave1212]

Nice, you can subscribe to your calendar in iCal, and it imports iCal files. Doesn't seem to have a limit on the number of calendars you can have at once, but I may just be overlooking something.

Hope it works in Safari soon. It doesn't even load unless I use Firefox.

'Full iCal support'

[mac123]

To me, full iCal support would typically mean the ability to publish to google calendar directly from my iCal compatible program, not export each calendar entry and import them.

Full 'read only' iCal support would seem a more apt description.

Quick report so far

[lennart78]

I have been nosing around in it for a few hours now. The main thing that I still miss is the ability to sync with a PDA, but I'm sure that will be hacked into the app. at some point. Furthermore:
* The user interface is pleasant, at least far more pleasant than any other web-based calendar I worked with before.
* The abilty to search for and import iCal calendars is very nice.
* You can manage multiple calendars from you account
* Sharing calendars with other users seems to work nicely

All in all, a decent start...

Annoyance

[barcodez]

I wish there was a way (maybe there is but I can't find it) to specify which Google applications you want to be automatically logged into. In my case I never want to be logged into the feature that remembers my searches, I find that feature disturbing. However if I log into Calendar or Gmail or Personal Homepage it starts remembering all my searches again until I log out and then I have to log in again when I use gmail or whatever. So I just don't use any of the features right now because it's too irritating.

Re:Not quite "live"

[forgotten_my_nick]

Yea I am wondering if they should put it back into BETA. Google betas are much more stable. :) At the moment it has taken 3 minutes just to get the calendar screen.

HTTPS issues

[tyroneking]

I know I'm being picky, but why does the Gmail link in the calendar page goto the http Gmail site and not the Https version? In fact Google Talk does that too.
Even Yahoo secure email with https by default.

Scheduled to be in beta for the next four years

[smittyoneeach]

Yes, but, once they get all of the kinks out, they can use the application to manage the formal launch event.
So they got that goin' for them. Thanks. I'm here all week.
Meanwhile, I like the completely understated interface.
It will also be fun to dig into the APIs. My biggest complaint against Palm Desktop is that integrating it with other stuff is too challenging. My biggest complaint with Outlook, besides its momma, is that its internals are a zoo.
With Google, one hopes for more opportunity for user add-ons.

Google Calendar Reviewed in PC World...

[scrm]

...Here [pcworld.com].

Google Calendar has been pretty slow for me this morning, and not all options are always saving correctly, but I guess it will take them a few more days to iron out the bugs and get used to the user load. Seriously neat is the ability to quickly add an entry by typing 'dinner with Chris next Thursday 5pm'.

I don't see any Gmail integration yet, like the ability to identify mails that mention appointments and ask you if you'd like them put into the calendar. But it's mentioned on the features page [google.com] so I'm sure it will be there soon.

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, another mountain of data for the US Gov't to suppoena.

Security by Obscurity

[pinky99]

Anybody else likes Googles "private" calendar link feature? It's a link with a hash part, which enables someone access to the calendar without any username or password. Google says, that "you should not give away" that link. But that concept at all is complete crazyness!

Re:iCal ripoff

[Fred_A]

How come they own that name when the ical program [annexia.org] which a lot of us have presumably used is something like 15 years old (and predates the web) ??

Big Brother will know your schedule

[foolish_to_be_here]

Someone has to bring this up. Do you really want the Justice Department getting court orders from Google to hand over everyones calendars so they can go on another fishing trip? Or, just think of the data mining potential for Advertisers. They are probably really wetting their chops on this one. Use a DavMod calendar on a descrete server. Other wise you are just asking for trouble.

Re:IE and Firefox only for now

[Rocketship Underpant]

I certainly agree with your sentiment; but for what it's worth, "anyways" is dialectic English, common in Canada at least. I used to have to make a conscious effort not to say it. Heck, I know people from my neck of the woods who say "anywheres" too!

Re:Import does not work properly...

[senrable]

I'm having the same problem - mine are shifted by 3 hours. The only work-around is setting my timezone in Google Calendar as Pacific. Wait, isn't Pacific the timezone of Google HQ?

Re:Submitter waited for this?

[KrugalSausage]

Are you serious?

The yahoo interface doesn't even compete with google's.

First there are no hotkeys, and to add an event, you specificially have to click on the number/date (waste of time).

e.g. In the month view, do you like having to click the number 13 to add an event (mind you that a new page loads) or do you like clicking anywhere inside the box, and having an instant prompt, as in google's?

I could go on and on...

Now, I do agree that there has been a lot of 'fanboyisms' with google here on slashdot, but you really picked a bad example by bringing up yahoo calendar.

Tag level sharing

[revery]

The one thing that I really, really like about 30boxes is that you can set tags on events and specify permission to people at the tag level. If Google implemented this feature, I'd seriously consider switching to it. Interface-wise, I think they have 30boxes beat (at least, day view, month view,etc)

Just my 2 cents...

Re:'Full iCal support'

[generic-man]

I have tried Mozilla Calendar, but until they release a Cocoa Mac OS X application I don't see how they can displace iCal for me. iCal may be feature-limited with regard to calendar synchronization, but it supports Cocoa services and AppleScript (not to mention iSync [apple.com] and an incredibly useful Dashboard widget [benkazez.com]). Mozilla Calendar is only available in clients that use the same mishmash of XUL and Quickdraw that make Firefox and Thunderbird feel so "un-Mac-like."

Missing features wishlist

[retrosteve]

First thing I missed, which will make it impossible to import existing calendars:

* No to-do's. All events must have a start and end time.

Anyone else want to add a wish?

Re:Submitter waited for this?

[shokk]

I'll wait for SyncML support. I need this to work with my Treo, so it's Yahoo and Intellisync for now. Plus Yahoo has that cool Day Planner widget to go with it. But given RSS output, any RSS reader will be able to act as a day planner, and there is an RSS Yahoo widget.

OK, but Google needs to start doing better

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I mean, this is really a basic calendar application. Why not even let the person set a country or location so that local holidays would show up in the calendar?

Schedule and calendar applications are a dime a dozen. Heck, anybody with at least a year of programming skills can write their own appointment manager, I have. It does everything I want it to do, without superfluous extras, and if I want it to do something more, I can write my own support for it.

If this is what we can expect from Google, time management and I bet they will so release a Money or Quicken substitute, then I can start to see Google's stock drop quickly.

Surprised Google hasn't released Google Notepad, it would have about the same impact as a calendar application.

How does it compare to 30boxes?

[LordJezo]

Anyone?

Re:Security by Obscurity

[cygnusx]

> Not really. If it's a good hash, then it's just as if not more secure than a username/password combo

I agree, but it would have been trivial to do what Gmail does for _its_ ATOM feed - require HTTP authentication over SSL. Many RSS readers added decent HTTPS+auth support simply because Gmail required it. There's no reason why Calendar feed consuming software wouldn't have done the same.

Google Calendar's private feed will be an easy target for anyone with access to proxy logs (for example, anytime you use that private feed link behind a work firewall).

Dont seem to, or unable to, complain in numbers?

[sethstorm]

"We look at the rise of China, the investment and the smart people and we are in awe of what has occurred here," Schmidt said.

"And we salute the government, key leaders in the industry and all of you who have made the rise of the Internet in China such a tremendous accomplishment."

Well said for the fork tongued Stanfordite. Exclusionist (Stanford Arrogance) and a sellout(China)!


There are certain games that can't be published or sold in Germany.

Irrelevant and only asking to get someone to G*dw*n a thread.

Get over it - it's a global economy and that means different rules in different places.
Thankfully France (the only country to resist the siren song of Asian slave labor) knows what problems happen (and react properly [bbc.co.uk]) with such sellout economies and has the balls to stand up to China. Google seems to be a hypocrite again in the same subject- fighting France and those who would normally take the tack of anti-globalization (when working with countries similar to economic models such as France would be the "norm" if by policy) as much as they help towards the execution squads in China.

Re:IE and Firefox only for now

[sk8dork]

from Merriam-Webster Online [m-w.com]

One entry found for anyways.
Main Entry: anyways
Pronunciation: -"wAz
Function: adverb
1 a archaic : ANYWISE b dialect : to any degree at all
2 chiefly dialect : ANYHOW, ANYWAY

Re:Missing features wishlist

[murfman5000]

I would like to see a plugin (modular) version of this calander for your google homepage (google/ig).

Btw, If you use google homepage there are now a ton of modules available, including to-do lists.

Drop in appliance?

[tyroney]

If Google came out with a drop in mail / calendar / storage / search appliance, I could see small to medium businesses dropping their exchange servers and all the licensing and support headaches they include. Either that or I'm optimistic and a little crazy.