Google Calendar

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Google Calendar
Google Calendar screenshot
Developer:	Google
OS:	Any (web based application)
Use:	Electronic calendar
Website:	http://calendar.google.com/

Google Calendar, previously code-named CL2, is a contact- and time-management web application offered by Google. It allows users to synchronize their Gmail contacts with a web-based calendar. It became available on April 13, 2006, and is currently in beta stages. While users are not required to have a Gmail account, they are required to have a free Google account in order to use the software.

Contents 1 Features 2 Mobile Phone Integration 3 Compatibility 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Features

The interface of Google Calendar is similar to desktop calendar applications such as Microsoft Outlook, iCal on Mac OS X or Brown Bear Software's Calcium. The Ajax-driven interface enables users to view and add events without reloading the page, and sports a variety of view modes, such as the weekly, monthly and agenda views. Users can "quick add" calendar events by typing standard English phrases, such as "Dinner with Michael 7pm tomorrow". Users can also set the number of days to show in their custom view mode. All events in a Google Calendar can be commented on by its users.

Events are stored online, so in the case of a user's hard drive failure, no data is lost. The application can import Microsoft Outlook calendar files (.cvs) and iCalendar files (.ics) (the de facto open calendaring file format), although at this stage only when the fields are all in U.S. format. Multiple calendars can be added and shared, allowing various levels of permissions for the users. This enables collaboration and sharing of schedules between groups or families. There are also general calendars available for importing into one's account which contain national holidays of various countries.

Google Calendar is integrated with Gmail, Google's web e-mail service. When an e-mail that contains trigger words (such as "meeting", or dates and times) arrives, an "add to calendar" button is automatically displayed alongside it. This feature is not yet available to all Gmail users.

Currently, Google Calendar can only be synchronized with mobile devices (e.g. BlackBerry, Palm, Pocket PC) or with PC applications (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) via third party software. Event reminders can be sent via email, as well as SMS to mobile phones in over 80 countries and regions. For supported mobile carriers in the United States, the GVENT feature of Google Calendar allows users to create new events and check calendar information via SMS.^[1]

[edit] Mobile Phone Integration

In addition to Google's SMS interface, independent projects are underway to allow users to view and edit their calendars from dedicated applications on their mobile phones. These include: Gcal Mobile, which uses a data plan to connect with Google Calendar, and Flash Lite Mobile Google Calendar, which uses SMS to connect with Google Calendar. Another project, GooSync, synchronizes native mobile phone calendar applications with the user's Google Calendar. There is also a free open source alternative GCalSync which can synchronize Google calendar to the mobile phone.

[edit] Compatibility

Since Google Calendar is a web-based application, it supports virtually any operating system, provided that it has a browser which supports the web technologies that it employs. Since it is a relatively new application, browser compatibility is limited to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+, Mozilla Firefox 1.0+ and Safari 2.0.3 with other browsers encountering rendering errors or even failing to load the page at all.

[edit] See also

• Yahoo! Calendar
• 30 Boxes
• Cozi Central

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Google Calendar
• Google Calendar Tour
• An unofficial screenshot tour of the software
• Unofficial site to view shared Google Calendar files without a google account
• How and Why to Backup Your Google Calendar