Google Calendar Coming Soon?

mcpastore writes "Blogs have recently been buzzing over the possibility of seeing a Google Calendar popping up soon. Dave bases his prediction on the fact that one of his sites has been getting a tremendous amount of hits from GoogleBot ever since he added the iCal calendar. It makes perfect sense Google would try to go after the calendar market as it is their last big missing piece of the portal puzzle."

Comments

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[fembots]

So when your, or someone else's birthday's coming, you might see more gift-related ads?

I don't buy it

[moofdaddy]

A calendar seems pretty clearly not to be in google's long term strategy. Everything they do they do because they can using their searching technology to make the way things are done even better. Be it email with searches, almost all the projects in google labs, etc. Search functions don't really fit all that well into a calendar, at least nothing that is goign to be improved by their algorithms.

Second the whole calendar thing has been kind of done to death already. Outlook does a pretty decent job on the PC and iCal does an amazing job on the mac. When Google moved into email they did so because the current web based emails sucked, there was major room for imporvement. There really ins't much else you can do with the calendar.

In the end it really just doesn't make sense.

Re:I don't buy it

[Statecraftsman]

I disagree with the idea that there's not much more to be done with calendars. If they could just port over that scrolling effect of maps to multiple calendar day views I'd use it...they can even keep it beta forever, I don't mind.

One of the main benefits of their apps is that they are accessible from anywhere...only a modest improvement is needed to make people switch and they are clearly trying to innovate.

Re:I don't buy it

[galaga79]

Second the whole calendar thing has been kind of done to death already. Outlook does a pretty decent job on the PC and iCal does an amazing job on the mac.

If Google did produce a web based calendar service, it would augment the capabilites of iCal on the Mac not replace it. As far as I am aware iCal lets you upload your calendars to the web, and view them online but I don't think you can change them online. If Google Calendar existed then you could update your calendar using just a web browser, and then keep it up to date on your desktop using an iCal remote subscription.

The whole iCal file format is very cool, and no where used to its full potential. Sunbird uses it too.

Re:I don't buy it

[supmylO]

I don't know if I buy the whole "there really isn't much else you can do with the calendar" thing. Looking back on what google has done for searching and web based e-mail it seems so OBVIOUS there was major room to improve, but no one had done it. These guys see things in a different way and make improvements that no one else saw before them. Sure, nothing you can imagine can be added to a calendar, but I'm not so sure that they can't think something up.

Re:I don't buy it

[Elwood P Dowd]

Are you kidding? Outlook does a poor job on the PC, and iCal does a passing job on the Mac, but neither of them sync with each other and neither of them are web based. Hell, you should be able to syndicate a calendar with RSS feeds.

If their calendar works as well as iCal, but brings it to the rest of the planet, that would be a complete coup.

I hope you're trolling. Sure, I don't see that it's the most groundbreaking thing Google will ever do, but you're crazy if you don't think they have a team or three working on calendar solutions. They have a lot of people.

Could be useful

[teslatug]

It'd be nice if they really integrated it into gmail. Yahoo already has such a feature, and it's not horrible, but I'm sure gCal could be much better.

Re:Doesn't add up to anything

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this sounds just about as trustworthy as all those predictions that Google would soon be offering VOIP. Remember that? We're still waiting...

I prefer to go crazy over the products *after* Google has released them. Mmmmm, google maps... *drools*

I'd pay for this

[Azureflare]

I use gmail via the webclient all the time now, and I really want a calendar to be integrated with it so I can access all my important times/dates/todos in one place anywhere I am, not just at home. My Corp has outlook webmail but I HATE HATE HATE the user interface. Gmail has probably the best interface I've ever used, and if they added a calendar to that...

I'd be willing to pay money for that.

Probably not a calendar

[ballwall]

My guess is they want to search events. It would be cool to google "concerts in denver" at calendar.google.com and get something meaningful back. It's all about searching, and storing your events in google doesn't really accomplish anything.

Makes much more sense for them to add the time element to searches, not a calendar function similar to Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Re:Too much Google?

[idlemachine]

It seems like Google is trying to control every aspect of the internet/computer.

By providing people with free tools that they can choose not to use if they don't want them?

That doesn't really fit with any definition of "control" that I'm familiar with.

Calendar is the last slot in an enterprise package

[zipwow]

I've been saying this for weeks now. Actually, ever since the first time I said, "Wow, I love g-mail, I wish I could use it for work."

If Google has calendaring and mail, with interfaces that are both simple and intuitive (obviously a strength of Google) then they can bundle that with their Enterprise search functionality and have a heck of a package.

They can sell it service-based like Microsoft dreams about, or they can ship it out on the little yellow boxes. Users are freed from installation hassles, and in the subscription package, IT departments from management hassles.

It seems like the next logical step to me.

-Zipwow

Two things...

[Sheepdot]

It makes perfect sense Google would try to go after the calendar market as it is their last big missing piece of the portal puzzle.

This is simply not true. There are an unlimited number of things they could implement. IMHO, perhaps the biggest "missing piece" is an IRC search, of which they were rumored to be creating, but then the buzz died off. However with the success of sites like isoHunt and Packetnews (even with all its friggen ads) Google is missing out on probably a quarter of the searches I do while online.

Second, it's a wellknown fact that the more often your website is updated, the more often that Google checks it. If he recently added a CMS, blog, or iCal, then it is likely Google is just coming back because he's updating a whole lot more.

Calendar integration is time based searching

[xixax]

Everything they do they do because they can using their searching technology to make the way things are done even better.

There's heaps that Google could do with calendars.

For some time now I have been thinking how cool it would be to integrate text, spatial and temporal searching. For example, "tell me when any of my favourite musicians will be performing within a 2 hour drive of my current location" or "I will be visiting these cities on these dates, tell me about these sorts of events occuring while I am there". Google is rapidly building up enough data to let people add time and space dimensions to their searches.

Xix.