November 23rd, 2008

Google adds contact syncing for your Blackberry

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 1:04 pm

Categories: Gmail, Google, Google Apps, Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Apps, RIM BlackBerry, Handhelds, Cloud Computing, Hardware, Garett Rogers

A piece of news that somehow didn’t get a lot of attention is that the Google Sync utility for Blackberry now does contacts too. This is a huge leap forward for Google Apps — users now have the ability to do true two-way syncing with their Blackberry for mail, calendar appointments, and contacts.

This means that now you don’t have to worry about maintaining two contact lists — something that you’ve never previously had to worry about with Microsoft Exchange. Each time Google adds a feature that strikes a chord with business users, they are scoring points that could one day turn the tables on Microsoft’s dominance in the enterprise.

On a related note, if your business still uses Microsoft Exchange, I’d be interested to know what is stopping you from switching to Google Apps. My biggest problem is the lack of technical support and the feeling of helplessness when something does go wrong, or some user accounts stop working. Let’s hear what you think in the TalkBack!

October 28th, 2008

Integrate Google Calendar and Docs into Gmail natively

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 7:12 am

Categories: Gmail, Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Gmail, Google Calendar, Philipp Lenssen, E-mail Providers, Cloud Computing, Internet, Garett Rogers

Google just rolled out functionality to allow the installation of gadgets in your Gmail (just click the labs icon at the top of you Gmail by “settings” to install it). This means you can add your calendar for a more consolidated view of your life, or even add something like tasks — a feature that people have been wanting since Google Calendar was launched. Until now, people have relied on greasemonkey scripts like “Remember The Milk” for a task list.

This feature is one that I’m sure users will enjoy — it gives them a good deal of flexibility needed to add functionality to their Gmail account.

Philipp Lenssen is right when says that this functionality, along with the labs project that lets you move sidebar items around, work very nicely together. By default, these gadgets appear below chat — but in my case, I think I prefer it higher than that, so I was able to drag it there with that other labs project.

July 13th, 2008

Gears for Google Calendar may be getting close, again

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:30 am

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Calendar, Screenshot, Desktops, Hardware, Garett Rogers

It’s been reported that Google Gears for Calendar is “close to launching” before — in fact, several times before. This time may be another false alarm, but one of my readers sent me a screenshot that looks promising.

I cannot confirm this screenshot is real, but to me it looks legit. You can see there is a new link in the top right hand corner that says “Offline (new!)” — if they’ve gone through the trouble of creating that label, it makes me wonder if they are getting closer to an announcement. There is also some text at the top that probably won’t be there when they launch the service, but it’s interesting:

build-label: calendar_8ak_p13, build-cl: 7659210, Not-Cached-By-Gears

Even though installing the offline version Google Calendar created shortcuts on his desktop and in his start menu, the person who sent in the screenshot says that he’s still unable to get it working in offline mode.

I’d be curious if anybody else is able to see this offline functionality in their own Google Calendar?

[Thanks Martin]

March 14th, 2008

Google launches offline calendar?

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 7:48 am

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Gears, Microsoft Outlook, Groupware, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Enterprise Software, Garett Rogers

One of my observant readers noticed today that his “settings” page in Google Calendar (and mine too) shows a new tab for “Offline”. It then prompts you to install Google Gears to enable the feature.

I already had Gears, but it still prompted me to install, so I’m thinking it’s not quite working yet. The “Learn More” link also points nowhere — I’m thinking they are just getting ready to release to the masses.

This has been in the works for quite a while, but it’s nice to see it finally coming to fruition. This comes very shortly after launching Outlook integration — with offline support too, it’s becoming a very viable Outlook alternative, even for the enterprise.

Are you having any more luck? If you have it working, leave a TalkBack!

[Thanks Zosh!]

March 5th, 2008

Google is about to let you sync with your Outlook

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:17 pm

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Groupware, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Enterprise Software, Garett Rogers

Google just updated their “What’s New” page with information about a yet unreleased feature that will let you sync your Outlook calendar with Gmail and vice versa. This is a huge feature that Google Calendar users have been missing — and even more-so for enterprise Google Apps users.

Sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook™ calendar
Access your calendar however and whenever you want. Check your Microsoft Outlook events on the go with Google Calendar. View your Google Calendar information offline through Microsoft Outlook calendar. Learn More

The new feature is not yet available, and the “learn more” link takes you to a page that doesn’t exist. We can only assume it’s right around the corner.

Update
The help page for the new feature is now live, and here is the link to the sync application. http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe. It looks like we’re talking about a windows application that will periodically sync your Outlook and Google Calendar. The sync options that are available include the following:

2-way
All events in your primary Google Calendar and your default Microsoft Outlook calendar will be synced together. Once you’ve selected this option, any changes you make to events in either Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook Calendar will be reflected in both applications.

If you modify the same event multiple times in both applications, the most recent update will sync between Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Google Calendar. Additionally, if you delete an event in Microsoft Outlook Calendar or Google Calendar, this event also will be deleted when viewing the other application. Please note that Google Calendar Sync will sync all of the events in your default Microsoft Outlook calendar and all of the events in your primary Google Calendar. Currently, there is no way to sync events within a specific time frame in your calendar.

1-way: Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook calendar
All events in your primary Google Calendar will be added to your default Microsoft Outlook calendar. During subsequent sync cycles, any updates made to events in Google Calendar will be reflected in Microsoft Outlook Calendar as well. But, keep in mind that any events created or modified in Microsoft Outlook Calendar won’t be reflected in Google Calendar.

1-way: Microsoft Outlook calendar to Google Calendar
All events in your default Microsoft Outlook calendar will be added to your primary Google Calendar. During subsequent sync cycles, any updates made to events in Microsoft Outlook Calendar will be reflected in Google Calendar. But, keep in mind that any events created or modified in Google Calendar won’t be reflected in Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

February 16th, 2008

Gmail task list feature spotted in the wild

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:57 pm

Categories: Gmail, Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Gmail, Google Calendar, E-mail Providers, Internet, Garett Rogers

One of the most requested features, that has been noticeably missing from Google Calendar and Gmail from the beginning, is a task list. This feature has been on Google’s own task list for a long time, but unfortunately it’s long overdue. Now for the good news — there are brand new reports that people have been seeing them (on and off) in their accounts. I’m thinking that Google will incorporate a task list feature similar to the “Remember The Milk” addon you can install using GreaseMonkey in Firefox.

I now see that a TASK LIST can accompany one’s GMAIL…. A task list
suddenly appeared on my Gmail page yesterday (Feb 4 08) , and I don’t
know what triggered it. Someone invited me to share a calendar, and I
accepted, and that person had a task list…. Is that what caused this
TASK LIST to show on my Gmail?

…

And then I see all sorts of GREAT stuff within that Task List area –
with Due dates, and prioritization!

…

This is the most exciting function I have yet seen in the Google
suite. please help! thanks!

According to this lucky user, it works pretty good. After digging around through the Gmail source code, I can verify there are a couple references to “Tasks”, so I have no doubt this person is telling the truth. Google Calendar has been dropping hints behind the scenes since at least October of last year.

Hey everyone - thanks for the loud and very clear feedback on your desire for a to-do/task list feature. We’re pretty passionate about to- do lists here as well, and we’ve got something in the works. Of course, we’re working to add our special Google secret sauce to the to- do lists space (which can take some time to get right,) so we don’t have something to announce just yet, but the entire team is listening to these threads closely.

Please be patient - we’ll have more to talk about soon.

If I was to guess, this feature will be launched in Google Calendar and Gmail simultaneously with pretty tight integration. Can you see the new task feature? If so, send me your screenshots!

October 27th, 2007

Use your Google Calendar offline soon

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 11:35 pm

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Gears, Google Calendar, E-mail Providers, Internet, Garett Rogers

Thoughts of combining Google services and Gears seems to be quite popular these days, however only one service so far (Google Reader) officially provides offline capabilities. Hints of offline support for Gmail surfaced last month after a Google translator pointed out a telling phrase he was asked to translate.

The latest service to spill the beans, though, is Google Calendar. The other day, Marketing Pilgrim gave us a screenshot of the service actually asking to allow Google Gears. At first, proving this was actually happening to people was a bit difficult — but now thanks to Tony Ruscoe, here is some javascript that confirms Google Calendar will be getting Gears support soon.

Type the following piece of text into your address bar in your browser while using Google Calendar for the proof:

javascript:_olp_showPromo();

If you look through the source code, references to Gears are scattered everywhere. After Google Calendar and Gmail both get offline support, maybe we should expect the same for Google Docs?

October 14th, 2007

Google Calendar close to launching a task list feature

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 8:18 am

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Google Calendar, Team Management, Management, Garett Rogers

Google posted a message on the Google Calendar discussion group that drops a hint that all the engineers on Google Calendar are working hard to get task lists into the service. This has been one of the most requested features since the service launched (and even before) — which makes it surprising that it’s still MIA.

Hey everyone - thanks for the loud and very clear feedback on your desire for a to-do/task list feature. We’re pretty passionate about to- do lists here as well, and we’ve got something in the works. Of course, we’re working to add our special Google secret sauce to the to- do lists space (which can take some time to get right,) so we don’t have something to announce just yet, but the entire team is listening to these threads closely.

Please be patient - we’ll have more to talk about soon.

This response came yesterday after a month of comments in a user-started “to-do list petition“. What do you think? Is this one of the most important missing features in Google Calendar?

September 24th, 2007

Google launches 2 apps for the iPhone

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:14 pm

Categories: Gmail, Google, Google Calendar, Google Reader

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., E-mail Providers, Real Estate, Web Browsers, Apple Mac OS X, Internet, Business Operations, Operating Systems, Software

Google just launched a new version of Google Calendar specifically designed for the iPhone. To check it out, visit the calendar.google.com from your iPhone browser, or download the Firefox addon that lets you update your UserAgent to make websites think you are using one.

Google Calendar for the iPhone is quite simple and is a lot easier to use than the normal mobile interface. Here is a screenshot:

Gooogle Reader for iPhone
The second unannounced application for the iPhone is Google Reader. Again, it is much sexier than the original mobile interface for the service. It has a distinct iPhone feel and I’m sure it will be used often by iPhone users. This comes after Google made a version of Google Reader for the Wii that makes good use of the Wiimote.

Google seems to be launching iPhone apps left and right — maybe the actual search engine or Gmail will be next? To give the new iPhone interface a try, download “User Agent Switcher” for Firefox and change your user agent temporarily to this:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

[via Gmail blog]

June 6th, 2007

Google launches the Calendar Gallery

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 10:46 pm

Categories: Google Calendar

Tags: Google Inc., Calendar, Garett Rogers

Google launched a Google Calendar Gallery that helps you find calendars you may be interested in. This new tool does it by grouping calendars together into browsable categories. Searching public calendars has been around for a while now, but the new gallery makes it easier to find the good ones without knowing exactly what to search for.

The gallery has several categories including Top Picks, TV Shows, Events, Sports, Entertainment, Miscellaneous, Holidays and By Google. They are all simply lists of popular calendars with the exception of “TV Shows”. In this gallery category, you can provide your zip code to show times and channels for your area — unfortunately I’m unable to get it to actually do anything.