Google's recently launched Calendar application was pretty impressive at launch, but seems to keep getting better every day. One of the recent additions I've taken a liking to is the SMS add feature that allows users to add new events to their calendar by texting them to GVENT from a mobile device. It uses the calendar's natural language calendaring feature to appropriately place events in the correct time slot. For example, a user could text any of the following:
lunch with bob tomorrow at 1pm
Wedding on May 19th in Stillwater at 6pm
to add events into the appropriate time slots.
The latest addition I've seen is an integration between Gmail and Google calendar that automatically detects events listed within your emails and turns them into quick adds for your Google Calendar. For example, here is a portion of a recent email I received about some Earth Day events:
The following box appeared along the right column of my Gmail window alongside the above message:
So Google was able to determine that there were events listed within the email and create "Add to Caldendar" links for each event. In this case, I clicked on the Garlic Mustard Pull event, clicked save on the Quick Add form, and immediately found the event on my Google Calendar:
It's not a perfect system yet. For example, I don't think there is a way to adjust the alarm time before individual events via SMS today. This is important since the default 10 minute warning isn't particularly useful for events more than 10 minutes away from where I may be. At launch, the calendar allowed for recurring events, but didn't have a way to delete recurring events. That bug was quickly resolved.
The integration between Gmail and Google Calendar goes both ways by pulling the Gmail address book into the Google Calendar's Guests feature. Adding or inviting guests to events is a snap since Google Calendar will autocomplete the addresses of anyone in your Gmail contacts.
Personally, I'd like to sync my Treo with Google Calendar rather than relying on SMS for all of my event reminders. For example, there may be times where I've turned my phone off, but would still want to be reminded of events I'd scheduled for myself. Creating a week long view where full days can be viewed without scrolling would be a big improvement as well. Google's created one heck of a powerful web based calendaring system already. Where do you think they'll take it next?
