After months of speculation and expectation, Google finally unveiled its Google Calendar on April 13th. Google Calendar is a free, online calendar that allows users with a Google account to schedule events, reminders, and other information, giving them the option of sharing and syncing their calendars with others. The new online calendar is currently in its beta stage.
Once a user has logged in they can edit their general calendar settings, including their time zone, desired viewing style, and the option of automatically adding invitations to their calendar or not. Users can also choose to share their calendar, create and delete additional calendars, and select if and how they want to be reminded of events. Notifications can also be sent straight to your cell phone, if you enter your phone number, and then enter in the verification code that is sent to your phone.
If a user already uses iCal or Microsoft Outlook calendars, they can import them into Google Calendar through a simple series of clicks.
If a user wants to share their calendar, they can choose how and with whom they want to share their information. They can choose to not share their calendar with anyone, share all the information on their calendars with everyone, or share only their free and busy days with the details hidden.
Google Calendar also offers users the option of sharing their calendars with specific people that they add on a list, with the choice of levels of information sharing and the ability to manage each other’s calendars.
It is this last ability that allows users to sync themselves with each other to see what free and busy days they have in common, among other things. This would be especially attractive to families, groups and organizations such as churches, teachers who want to show the upcoming class and exam schedule to their students and doctors who want to show patients their available schedule, among a number of other users and organizations.
Creating and inputting events can be done by either clicking on “Create Event,” after which a user will have to type in what, when, and where the event is, with the option of entering a short description of the event. Underneath this box are options about reminders and privacy, while next to it is an optional guest list, which will allow users to send out invitations, keep track of RSVPs, and communicate with possible guests to the event. This field has been dominated by Evite, but it would appear that Google Calendar has the very real potential of intruding on their spacious elbow room.
Users also have the simpler option of clicking on “Quick Add” to create an event. This allows someone to just enter a basic description of the event they want to add to their calendar, such as “Pick up kids from soccer practice 8 pm Thursday. Events can also be added directly by clicking on the calendar, which can be viewed in daily, weekly, monthly, and the next 4 day formats. A tab labeled “Agenda” will show what events have been entered within a specified time span.
Events can also be edited or deleted after they have been entered, and can also be set to repeat if they reoccur on a daily or weekly basis.
No one should really be intimidated if Google Calendar sounds complicated and tedious so far. The Ajax interface makes the site easy to navigate and learn.
In terms of making money with the new addition, analyst Charlene Li of Forrester Research indicates that events “are highly monetizable,” meaning that advertisers could easily find their way into Google Calendars by displaying relevant and local ads for events in a user’s calendar.
Garett Rogers of ZDNet.com sees potential for a tie in with DVR technology, enabling users to check TV listings on their Google Calendar and clicking on shows that they want to record, which would give Google another means to profit off of their new product.
Google Calendar will initially be offered as a feature of Gmail. It works fine in both Firefox 1.5 and Internet Explorer 6.
Sources:
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/
searchinsider/wpn-49-20060413GoogleCalendar
WantsToDateYou.html
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/
apr2006/tc20060412_834459.htm?chan=technology_
technology+index+page_internet
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=163
http://www.google.com/calendar/render
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