The Winner: Google Calendar
Google is obviously trying to become the king of online desktop apps -- between Gmail, Google Spreadsheets, and Writely, it's clear that an online Google suite is the company's Next Big Thing. Google Calendar is an excellent part of that suite.
  Google Calendar keeps it simple enough to be useful to a range of users. Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
Like other Ajax-based calendars, Google Calendar lets you quickly create events for your schedule by typing everything into a single box, as in "Meeting With Boss 9am to 10am Conference Room B" -- the application's engine will parse it out and insert it into your calendar properly. You can also fill out a form. In either case, you have to first click on a link before you start typing -- other calendars have a box available all the time, which is slightly more convenient.
The best part of Google Calendar is its clever and easy-to-understand way of dealing with shared calendars. You can add as many iCal-based or shared private calendars as you want -- Google lists them all on the side of the window. You then check off which ones you want visible on your calendar at any one time, which means you can have a load of shared calendars available without crowding your interface with all of them at once. For example, you can uncheck your kids' schedules and just look at your business appointments.
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• Introduction • Calendars • Info Managers • Spreadsheets • Webtops • Word Processors |
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• Image Gallery |
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Google Calendar isn't perfect -- my wish list includes an associated to-do list, the ability to sync with Outlook and/or a handheld, and better integration with its other services. But on the whole, this is a highly useful app.
One note: While I was writing this review, there was a glitch in the operation of my calendar, and I couldn't access three of my shared calendars. I contacted Google with the names of the affected calendars; they said they were aware of the problem, and within 24 hours, the error had been corrected. They may have already been working on it when I reported it, but I have to say, it's been a long time since I've gotten that kind of service from even a paid software company.
The Runner-Up: 30 Boxes
Using 30 Boxes is like buying a new car with manual transmission and lots of extras -- you don't just want to drive it, you want to fool around with it to see what it can do.
 30 Boxes is almost too much of a good thing. Click image to enlarge and to launch image gallery. |
While at its simplest level, 30 Boxes works as an online calendar, you can easily add weather reports, RSS feeds, a to-do list, or notices from LiveJournal, Flickr, and MySpace to your calendar. You can add buddies and share calendars with them. 30 Boxes even comes with its own (admittedly simple) webtop that offers a summary of your daily appointments and to-do entries, and adds applets such as Google search, Yahoo Mail, and even -- wait for it -- your Google Calendar. And the folks at 30 Boxes are constantly adding more: The day I wrote this, they announced a mobile version for cell phones.
But all that really cool stuff can be a bit overwhelming if all you want to do is track your appointments. Which you certainly can do with 30 Boxes -- and have a lot of fun in the process.
Also Available:
CalendarHub: CalendarHub offers basic calendar features: You can enter an appointment, share with another user, import from some other calendars, and synchronize it with an iCal calendar. However, none of these are implemented in a terribly sophisticated way. In other words, this one is useable, but can't compete with the others listed here. (Click here for image.)
Kiko Calendar: I had originally written some nice things about Kiko: that it has some interesting design aspects, for example, and that while it's not quite up to Google Calendar, it has a lot of potential. But as of this writing, it was up for sale on eBay. With no idea of whom the new owners will be or what they'll do with it, I can't recommend Kiko at this time. (Click here for image.)
--Barbara Krasnoff
