All About Google Calendar

Google Calendar (calendar.google.com), shown in Figure 33.1, looks like every other web-based calendar you've ever seen. (And like most software-based calendars, too.) You enter your appointments (which Google calls "events") directly into the calendar, which you can display in either daily, weekly, or monthly views. You can also, if you like, view your weekly agenda on a single page.

Figure 33.1. Google Calendarnot just another calendar application.

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Nothing unusual about any of that. So, compared to all the other calendar applications out there, what's unique about Google Calendar?

First, Google Calendar is a web-based calendar. This means that your calendar information is stored on Google's servers, not on your own computer. The advantage of this is that you can access your calendar from any computer anywhere in the world. Just log onto the Google Calendar page, and your calendar and all events are there.

Second, since Google Calendar is web-based, you can use it to create not only a private calendar for yourself, but also public calendars for your company or organization. Create a public calendar and all employees or attendees can access it via the Web. In addition, special event invitation features make it easy to invite others to an eventpublic or private.

Third, Google allows you create several differentand different types ofcalendars. You can create one calendar for home, another for work, and yet another for your son's soccer team. Then you can view all your calendars from the same Google Calendar page.

Fourth, since Google Calendar is part of the Google empire, it integrates smoothly with Gmail. Google Calendar can scan your email messages for dates and times and, with a few clicks of your mouse, create events based on the content of your Gmail messages.

Finally, Google Calendar tries to be as universal as possible. That means relatively seamless integration with the information you've previously created with any other calendar programs you may be using, such as Yahoo! Calendar or the Microsoft Outlook calendar.

Bottom line, Google wants to make it both beneficial and easy to move from your current calendar program to Google Calendar. Give it a try and see what you think.

Commentary: Targeted Ads For Google, Google Calendar offers yet another opportunity to sell profitable advertising space. Although, to be fair, Google Calendar is not yet littered with these pesky little things. But rest assured, that's why Google created Google Calendaras yet another vehicle to deliver highly targeted ads. Think through all the detailed information Google Calendar is collecting about you and your activities, and then imagine how that information can be used from an advertising perspective. For example, if you create an event to go to a movie on Saturday night, Google can theoretically parse that information and then sell targeted ad space to movie studios or theater chainsor maybe even restaurants in the nearby neighborhood. The more information you enter, the more targeted Google's ads can be. It sounds cynical, I know, but why else would Google offer such a service with no supporting direct revenue stream? The rewards for such an investment come from future advertisingin this case, very targeted, and thus very profitable, advertising. Don't like the idea of Google keeping all this personal information on their company servers? Then don't use Google Calendar, or any other web-based calendar application, for that matter. The benefits of a web-based calendar are purchased at the cost of personal privacy; even though Google says your private information will stay private, they can still use that information to send event-specific ads in your direction. If the privacy issue bothers you, switch to a software-based calendar, insteadand forgo the ability to share events and calendars with your friends and colleagues. That's the trade-off you have to consider.