So I’ve just discovered Google Calendar, still in beta (big surprise) but fully capable of kicking the crap out of Yahoo Calendar, previously the best available online option, and as a web-based application, obviously holding a huge advantage over Outlook.
As with Yahoo, it’s possible to make your Google Calendar public, which will be useful for organizations that want to put their schedules where people can see them. Even better, you can import public calendars into your own. I’ve got calendars of Indian, Islamic, Jewish, Korean and US holidays, as well as a calendar that shows UN annual days, all plugged into my own calendar. And I can show or hide the events from each calendar with a check-box, so I don’t have to worry that my own calendar will be cluttered with pointless junk like Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling against Racism and Racial Discrimination when what I really want to know is what time I need to be at the dentist.
Another nice touch is that you can set your alerts to go to your cell phone, so you don’t even have to be at your computer to be reminded of your schedule.
Like other Google products, it’s fast, intuitive and useful. Nice work!