Everyone loves Google. They have the best and the brightest writing their code and it shows. Unfortunately, they need to be all things to all people so their presentation is not quite as “beautiful” as Apple or 37 Signals… but it works. And it works well!
I often recommend folks start with Google and see how far they can take you.
Pros
Free!!!
Industry Standard (everyone loves Google)
Integrates with all Google products
Authorized users can subscribe
Authorized users can edit events
Authorized users can share their calendars
Excellent notifications
Cons
NOT private (Google reads your info)
NOT secure (Google can share your info if requested by law enforcement)
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Apple makes a lovely calendaring solution. It is integrated into the operating system so anyone on a Mac can easily use the incredible calendaring engine. The software is a joy to use. It is the best thing out there in terms of ease of use and flexibility. Apple will release their new OS X 10.5 this month and with it comes a host of wonderful improvements to iCal.
Of course, if you are on a PC, you are out of luck unless you want to use the web-limited version which works, but is no better than Google. To share calendars on the web you need a single $100/year mac.com account.
Pros
Mac-based extremely flexible engine (best-of-breed and getting better this month with the release of OS X 10.5)
Authorized users can subscribe
Authorized users can share their calendars
Acceptable notifications
Cons
NOT secure (Apple can share your info if requested by law enforcement)
$100/year
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BackPackIt Calendar Movie
backpackit.com
37 Signals makes the best online applications on the planet. I L-O-V-E these guys. Their stuff is affordable and very, very well written. I can not recommend them enough.
That being said, Google is free and the industry standard. If backpackit.com helps you in other ways, use the calendar. If you do not need the backpackit.com services… go with Google or mac.com
Pros
Authorized users can subscribe
Authorized users can share their calendars
Integrates with all BackPackIt/37 Signals products
Acceptable notifications
Cons
NOT secure (37 Signals can share your info if requested by law enforcement)
$60/year
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http://yourdomain/wp
When all is said and done, we at YVOD are big Open Source and privacy advocates. As such, we care more about function than form (to put it mildly). You can do everything Google, Apple and 37 Signals offers… right on your own blog.
Is it as pretty? Nope. Is it as easy? Nope. But it is yours and you never have to worry about paying an additional fee or someone sharing your data with others. And because it is Open Source, upgrades are free and if you ever need to migrate to another service… you can take your data with you.
Now how is that for security? =)
Pros
Free!!
Private and secure (you own all content)
Integrated into your blog (blog plugin)
Authorized users can edit events
Authorized users can subscribe
Authorized users can share their calendars
Acceptable notifications
Cons
Not as robust as other offerings
Thanks for this insight, Ulan. I want to put forth a couple of issues I continue to struggle with in my search for a portable calendaring solution in hopes that the dialogue we generate is somehow helpful.
I work mostly from home on my trusty iMac, and I use iCal for my personal calendars. I find it helpful because I can separate different categories of events visually, by color-coding them, so I can see at a glance whether a bill is due today or whether I have a playdate scheduled at the park. However, this is where the usefulness of my calendar ends.
At my office, they have recently switched from an internal iCal system to a public-facing website-based system, which of course has limited access and really leaves quite a bit to be desired as far as features or even display. It’s essentially an ordered list of dates and events, which works fine for a concert calendar, but not very well for anything else. So I have to go onto the website and manually export that information into somewhere it is useful – which generally means I print it out, keep it in the same place as my printed-out iCal calendar and the various odd scraps of paper, parenting magazine pages, napkins and whatnot upon which this information has been collected. And then I check that against my dry-erase board where I write impending client deadlines that I need to always have visually in front of me.
In other words, it’s an absolute mess.
I have not tried Google Calendar nor GMail. I make part of my living working with Google, as you know, and although I have the deepest respect for SOME aspects of their mission and their business model, I have always felt a certain squeamishness about using their personalized services for privacy reasons. I even worry that in my random and wide internet searches, I am often signed in to Google inadvertently and I wonder how they will use the information about me that they are so carefully collecting. It just gives me the willies.
I adore 37Signals’ work just for purely aesthetic reasons. It works and it’s elegant. But for some reason, I have never gotten around to making them an elemental part of my computing experience. I haven’t visited my Basecamp account in probably six months. So it’s a tool that’s pretty and well-designed, that for some reason just sits gathering dust in the toolbox.
Anyway, I don’t have any solutions, but thank you for bringing up and carefully considering some of the issues involved in selecting an online calendaring tool. Next I’d love to see a review of photo archiving tools!
Your pal,
~m
I have the same concerns about Google. But I admit I am a little nutz when it comes to privacy. I really want to love Google, but I love my privacy too much to give them any more personal information than is required. As such, I use none of their products for personal use (except search of course).
I bet the 37Signals folks could help your company a bunch. [Please note that your private information can be used by them as well if they wish.]
As for you not using Basecamp, I totally understand. I go through stretches where I do not us it as much as I should. But you know what, I always return to it and am very, very happy to review the information I do post there. Should software require us to change the way we work? No. But if it can encourage us to work better, then that software is more than a tool… it is a gift. The more I use Basecamp, the better I work. Basecamp and freshbooks.com are my two favorite gifts of late.
I use iCal everyday because it syncs with my iPhone. After the talking, email and web browsing, the calendar functionality is the most-used feature on my phone. I NEVER used calendars on my previous phones. Now I use mine every day. I work better because of it.
I guess my take on calendars is pretty simple: If you use them, they will help you.