Google Calendar launched

[andrew247]

You can now use Google CL2 Calendar!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to keep track of all the events in your life, coordinate schedules with friends and family, and find new things to do -- all with one online calendar? We thought so, too. Learn More

Seeing the big picture
With Google Calendar, you can see your friends' and family's schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that you find online.

Sharing events and calendars
You decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Planning an event? You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.

Staying on schedule
You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.

Source

This has been awaited for a long time, and many people thought it would be a while before it was launched. However, it seems that Google have launched it out of the blue.
It asks a few questions once you sign in for the first time, for example, your time zone.

[warzabidul]

At the moment it's missing a lot of key features which are -

Possibility of uploading CSV files with events on them

Extracting dates from e-mails to add on the calendar

An easier way to add birthdays and holidays.

At the moment it feels far too simple to be of any interest to those who use calendars properly.

[Dmitri]

I can only say one thing... It's slow as hell!

All I see is "Failed to ..."
They should seriously tweak their servers.

EDIT: Well, it's faster now! The rant was about the first days of the release.
Using it!

[andrew247]

Originally Posted by Dmitri

I can only say one thing... It's slow as hell!

All I see is "Failed to ..."
They should seriously tweak their servers.

Yes, it can be. One of the times it went to 'redirecting' it didn't finish, and I had to clear my cache and log out of Google. Then it worked fine. At least we know one of the reasons why Google was reluctant to release it earlier.

[RESteve]

Outlook CSV to Google Calendar - http://www.tech-recipes.com/google_tips1334.html

Wasn't there people on this forum screaming yesterday about how this wasn't going to be released for ages?

[andrew247]

Originally Posted by RESteve

Outlook CSV to Google Calendar - http://www.tech-recipes.com/google_tips1334.html

Wasn't there people on this forum screaming yesterday about how this wasn't going to be released for ages?

Maybe Google were influenced by those people.
But I doubt it.

[warzabidul]

Found that it also accepts mac calendar files so I've uploaded those to the servers. That's a good feature although it's not immediately apparent.

I take back what I said before, at least partially.

[Joe7]

I am trying to load my Yahoo Calendar but is messes up format.

It is slower than Christmas...

[RESteve]

I would imagine that it'll be slow for a while. I bet they underestimated (ala analytics) to load and bandwidth caused by the flood of visitors.

Give it a week or so, my mone is that it'll improve (reponse-wise) tremendously.

[mondine]

Probably one of those deals where it depends on what server you happen to be on.
It went pretty quick for me; signed in with my Google account, and was up and running in a minute.