Google's Calendar almost here?

Des & I were chatting on Skype tonight yet again about "dumping Outlook" and about alternatives. Then I read this news on GeekyInfo:

Google Rumours points out that the widely rumoured Google calendar program could be released soon. Does anyone have any information about the details of this program – what it will do etc?

‘We’ve heard for a while now that Google is prepping a calendar service, possibly to help bolster Gmail. Our friends at Google Addiction have done some WHOIS research and found that GCalendar.com is owned by Data Docket Inc. Not particularly damning until you know that Data Docket appears to be a holding company for Google’s upcoming projects. The company even held the domain GoogleEarth right before the sevice launched. ‘

Read more at google rumours

I've already dumped Outlook's mail client for Gmail. Cal, Contacts and Tasks are the current hold-ups and I'm playing with Time & Chaos as an alternative. But if Google are coming out with something... that could be interesting. A Calender-in-the-sky is what I really want. Something that can synch with my Pocket PC and can show me 5+ concurrent timezones.

Technorati Tags : google, calendar, outlook

Comments

[phil]

Thanks for the link Cam. I have been giving some thought to exactly the same thing - I am just sick of using outlook and having it crash or need to be "knocked out".

I am testing thunderbird for my mail now. Although have found every now and then that attachments from other outlook users don't seem to work correctly. I just cant pin that one down.

For tasks, and calendar I am using outlook but am wondering if I should move them to the palm desktop program (and synch with my treo). But Google calendar would be a good replacement here.

So, we wait :) I just hope that Google Cal will have the sync ability to palm and windows mobile bulit in.

[Des Paroz]

Funny, Cam, we were talking a few nights back about the very possibility of Google having its own calendar application. Its going to happen, as Google slow moves productivity apps to a browser based environment, leaving MS with OS.

I would move in an instant to anything other than Outlook, if I could find something reliable that handles things in a non-convoluted manner, and in a way that makes it easy for me to sync my Pocket PC - without having to use Outlook as an middleware.

Airset has potential for that as well, but you still have to use Outlook. So no good for me. I am not going to add another piece to the instability of Outlook equation.

I am using Thunderbird and gmail, and am seriously contemplating going over to gmail for everything. The only thing stopping me is getting a way to back up whats on the system. Yes I could use a POP3 interface, but that would leave me without the benefit of gmail's tagging system.

Anyway, can't wait to see what Google and Airset come forth with....

[Brian Dougherty]

Hi,
I came across you post and thought I would drop you a line to try out our product. We have an online shared calendar product that is part of a websuite for managing all of the important groups in your life, all in one place. The website is www.airset.com additionally, since you are skype users, I think you might really like a skype integration we are coming out with in a few weeks.

-Brian

P.S. if you give it a try, let me know what you think.

[Brian Dougherty]

Just noticed the post above, which happened to mention AirSet. I am not sure what Des means when he says you have to use Outlook. AirSet is a web based application and you don't need Outlook. It is true that at the moment, if you want to sync to a desktop calendar for offline use, we only sync with Outlook and Palm desktop, but we expect to expand that list in the future, including syncing to Sunbird.

[Delicate Genius]

You might want to keep an eye out here for apps which might fit the bill.

http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/

-dg

[-mb]

Fenton is a free program that will help you out with Outlook attachments. Main website is down but you can get it at http://zfacts.com/p/64.html

[Gail Watt]

This had me really intrigued - if true, we can sign up for the "del.icio.us" of web-based calendars on Sunday:

http://thomashawk.com/2006/02/30-boxes-best-calender-ever.html

[Anon]

http://www.googlesync.com/