The beta version of Google Calendar, which can be accessed without a Gmail account, enables users to search for and add events from within the program or through Web sites that use open standards for calendars.
Users of the new Google application can also access events from friends’ shared calendars and import events from Microsoft Outlook.
Google also built invitation management into Google Calendar. Users can create event invitations to be sent to anyone with an e-mail account. They can also send event reminders via e-mail or cell phone text message, and keep track of RSVPs from within the program.
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People can see their schedules by day, week, month and four-day views, highlight any period from a monthly calendar for a customized view and display only certain events at a time on their calendar view.
The application works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 and higher, and with Firefox 1.07 and higher. Users must have JavaScript and cookies enabled, Google said.
Privacy concerns should be quelled by Google Calendar’s default settings, which designates all events in a person’s calendar private unless the user makes them public.
The major search and portal companies are in a race to offer the most useful Web-based applications to a growing Internet-savvy population that is increasingly moving its life off paper and onto the Web.
Microsoft is planning a major calendar upgrade for its Outlook 12 release later this year. The obvious competition (for Google Calendar) is Microsoft Outlook.
Yahoo has said it is looking to integrate features from social-events calendaring site Upcoming.org–which it acquired last year–into Yahoo Calendar.
[break=Google Opens Calendar Beta]
Google continues their steady stream of beta apps
Google has opened up yet another beta program. This time, the company is showcasing its Calendar service. Google Calendar is fully integrated with GMail and can even recognize dates from email messages and add them to your calendar.
Google Calendar features the ability to share calendar information with family and friends, integrated search, mobile access with event reminders and notifications and of course it’s absolutely free. The service supports calendar data from Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Calendar and any application that support .XML or .CSV files.
Google Calendar supports IE 6.0+ and Firefox 1.07+ on Mac, Linux and Windows platforms.
[break=Google adds calendar app to portfolio]
Google adds calendar app to portfolio
Google today released a comprehensive digital calendar application in an effort to compete with similar services currently offered by competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft. Simply named “Calendar,” the application integrates tightly with other Google services such as search, maps and mail and offers users to import public calendars.
Still dubbed as a “Beta” service, Calendar already offers most features users today expect from their electronic calendars. Existing Ical and Outlook calendars can be imported and be shared in groups; events can be repeated and can be attached to features such as alarms, notes and maps. However, the company also managed to integrate some features to provide the application with a unique Google flavor.
Similar to Google Maps, which allows users to find a location by using natural language, Calendar also works with simple terms one would use in a regular conversation. For example, appointments can be automatically added through a “Lunch with Patrick at Friday’s 1pm tomorrow” phrase. A map of a meeting point can be added through a simple click. Reminders are not only available as pop-up windows, but can also be sent via email or via SMS to a cellphone.
Sharing calendars has become a popular workgroup feature and has been available for example in Yahoo’s calendar app for some time. Google supports calendar sharing not only within proprietary Google calendars, but can also import Apple’s Ical format as well as XML-based calendars. The service allows users to search publicly available calendars from other users or organizations and add them to their calendar. Currently available are for example holiday calendars and public calendars from universities and municipalities.
While flexibility may be the advantage of Google Calendar, there are still weaknesses, especially for professional users who may be considering the service as an option for existing products such as the Palm Desktop or Outlook. Right now, Google Calendar lacks a capability to download data to the local desktop, a dedicated task manager as well as secure access via SSL. Especially users who do not like to share certain portions of their calendar may have concerns using the application at this time.
[break=How To Import Outlook (CSV) or iCal Calendar Events]
Google calendar is here. Importing from a CSV or iCal file is easy enough.
What to import your schedule from outlook into google calendar? Actually importing from any CSV or iCAL file is very easy.
**Here is the tutorial to go from Outlook to Google Calendar: **
[ul]
[li]1. Open Outlook [/li][li]2. Click File menu [/li][li]3. Click Import and Export [/li][li]4. Click Export to a file [/li][li]5. Click Comma Separated Values (DOS) [/li][li]6. You may be required to install the possible translator here. Just follow the directions on the screen. [/li][li]7. Select folder to export from: Calendar [/li][li]8. Browse, name, and save the file some place easy to find it. (Desktop) [/li][li]9. Click Next [/li][li]10. On the follow actions will be performed screen click the Finish button. [/li][li]11. Allow the export to perform [/li][li]12. Open Google Calendar [/li][li]13. Click Settings link in the upper right hand corner of the screen [/li][li]14. Click the Import Calendar link under Calendar settings [/li][li]15. Click the Browse button and select your exported file [/li][li]16. Choose your calendar [/li][li]17. Click Import and wait. It may take a bit. [/li][li]18. It’ll tell you when it’s done!!![/li][/ul]
Congratulations. Your outlook calendar is now exported to google calendar!
[break=Calendar Keyboard Shortcuts]
Calendar Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigating around a calendar should be fast and easy. For those of you who like to type, we’ve provided keyboard shortcuts for most of the key functionality.
Calendar Keyboard Reference
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[break=GMail Updated With The Links Bar And Calendar Integration]
GMail Updated With The Links Bar And Calendar Integration
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With the release of Google Calendar, many people were awaiting the integration with GMail. Well, it is now available and can be found whenever you start to compose a message or receive a message with a date in it.
When you begin to compose a message you will see a link on the right side of the screen that says “Add Event Infoâ€. This link will allow you to enter in the details of the event that you are inviting the recipient to. When the recipient receives the email it will appear as an invitation that they can decide whether they will attend, might attend, or will not attend the event. If they decide that they will or might attend the event then it will be added to their calendar.
Of course, if you don’t add the event information into the email directly then GMail will still offer the option for the user to add it to their calendar once GMail finds a date located in the body of the email. However, by not including the event information directly you will not be able to keep track of the attendance count.
Lastly, there is the Links Bar in the upper-left corner of the screen with direct links to the Google Calendar, Google Homepage, and GMail. Eventually this should be customizable as we saw it would be earlier in the year.
[break=Google Calendar task list feature]
Google Calendar task list feature
I decided to spend a little time today digging through the Google Calendar javascript source and I found a couple of things I thought were interesting. Sometimes pieces of code get put into the javascript that are simply not called from anywhere  these snippets can executed manually and sometimes reveal something interesting.
For example, when you log into your Google Calendar, you can paste this small piece of javascript in your address bar to see some debugging information that the developers probably use to help optimize the application:
javascript:_ShowPerf();
Or you can bookmark this link (GCal Performance) and use it at any time while using Google Calendar.
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As for upcoming features, I found some code that suggests they will be adding completable events  or “tasks”. This would be nice because the only thing that even resembles a task is an all day event  and you can’t mark them as completed or carry them forward.
od.prototype.completable = function(a,b){ alert(“UNIMPLEMENTED completable”) }
;od.prototype.completions = function(a,b){ alert(“UNIMPLEMENTED completions”) }
;od.prototype.oncomplete = function(a,b,c,d){ } (see how the function for “oncomplete” does nothing?)
Google really does listen to their users  a task list is a heavily requested feature of people using this service in the Google Calendar Help group.
[break=Google Calendar SMS Tricks]
[B]Google Calendar SMS Tricks
Much more then just event reminders[/B]
Like everyone else, I’m giving Google Calendar a spin. One of the first things that I did was sign up for SMS reminders. I liked that feature of 30Boxes, and it makes it easy to keep on top of things without entering information into my phone.
My first few days of reminders from Google Calendar came via my carrier’s email to SMS gateway. After a few days, I noticed that the reminders were being sent from SMS short code 48368. Being of the adventurous sort (and having an unlimited SMS plan), I wondered if I could send a Text Message (SMS) to my Google Calendar to schedule a new appointment. I sent the message ‘help’ to 48368, and received the following three messages:
[ul]
[li]Google Calendar alerts you of upcoming/new/changed events on your calendar. For info: www.google.com/calendar . To cancel text stop to 48368. [/li][li]Standard msg charges apply. Text the following commands for more info: next (next event), day (todays events), nday (tomorrows events), or text a new [/li][li]event to add it via quick add.[/li][/ul]
Sweet! So I can repeat a reminder, get a list of days events for today and tomorrow. Even better, I can make a new appointment from my phone. The instructions hint that the ‘Quick Add’ rules apply. So, for example, I can send ‘dinner at Zupas tomorrow 7pm’, and get back a message saying:
[ul]
[li]Created event: Dinner at Zupas @ Sat, Apr 22 8pm[/li][/ul]
Oddly enough, the event showed up at 7pm on my calendar, despite the 8pm in the response message. Perhaps a timezone issue? The message was presented in the online calendar as an invitation that I could accept or reject.
I can’t find this info on Google’s site, and searching returned no results as well. This may be a beta phase, and they may not have rolled it out to all users yet. If you have additional info, please send it along, and I’ll post it here!
48368?
Google’s other SMS short code (googl = 46645) makes so much sense that I thought there must be a name for this one as well. The best one that I can come up with is gvent.
[B]Quick Guide
Register Phone with Google Calendar
Send these commands to 48368:
help
next
day
nday
You can also add events using Quick Add syntax[/B]