There is a lot being said about Google Calendar right now, since it only launched early today. It is quite obviously a calendar from Google, and it is awesome. I don’t want to repeat to much of what everyone else is saying so for a full review I advise:

• Google Blogoscoped: Post, a few threads.
• TechCrunch: Post.
• Search Engine Watch: SearchDay, Forum.
• Inside Google: Post.

These all get you up to speed on the features. Here is my summary. It is like the other web calendars that have sprung up recently essentially. It looks very like Kiko with the different views for day, week, month etc. This is a feature also shared by AirSet I believe. It has a quick add feature like every other online calendar (but particularly worked on by SpongeCell and 30Boxes) that understands real english and plops it on the calendar for you. You can move events around drag and drop style, you can highlight strips of days to add events, and you can highlight custom amounts of days for display on the minicalendar. There are no tags or “labels” but it does have a powerful search and the ability to make several different coloured calendars, so for instance one calendar could deal with all the events relating to your job or your football team or whatever. Invitations work like everywhere else except the interface is nicer. Events are private by default but can be shared on an individual basis, or by calendar. You can also share events without saying what the events are. You just get “busy” for each of the events, but at least it lets your pals know when you are busy. You can show your friends calendars on your own calendar much like you can in 30 Boxes, and you will see however much your friend lets you see. There are numerous key board shortcuts too which a few of the other services also do.

So it seems that it is pretty much the same as every other calendar application? Nothing worse, but not much better. Well this is where a few things come in. Firstly Gmail integration whilst not fully active yet is a big bonus. Adding events straight from gmail would be nice (and is promised shortly). A link already appears in the calendar to go to Gmail, a reciprocal link is coming. That is one plus for Google Calendar. Also it is very intelligent I have found. After setting up a reapesting event what happens when you edit it? Should all of them change or just the one you edited? It depends obviously… and Google Calendar knows that so it asks you. Secondly the interface for this thing is awesome. It is like Gmail only quicker. Admittedly it was slow and performing crazily a little earlier on but things seem to have settled down. And for a third take a look at the image above.
In a previous post on calendars I stated that a big difference between services was how much calendar they gave you. 30 boxes was the clear winner back then. I think Google is a good contender though… that is a lot of calendar. Compare with four other online calendars here. This calendar also has the bonus of resizing neatly to your screen size. Clever. One thing it doesn’t do though is allow you to put RSS feeds on it like I was enjoying doing in 30 boxes. But I think the other pros blow this one con away.

One last place to check out information on todays news is:

• 30 Boxes Forum: Thread.

Here 30 boxes users are justifying their positions. Are they going to switch, or are they sticking with 30 boxes. I am certainly with the former bunch. Google have done it again….