5. Conclusions

Conclusions

Yahoo, Google and Microsoft all clearly have solid online calendar offerings that are all a little different from each other in small ways. Yet, those small differences will sway users to opt for one of the calendars over the others.

Depending on how you prefer to have calendar views show up, for example, could be an issue. The event wraparound in Yahoo is painless as opposed to the more common cut-off events in Google and Windows Live.

The whole issue of reminders is also critical. If you’re the kind of person that needs lots of reminders before an event (think snooze button), then Windows Live calendar isn’t for you. If two will suffice, then Yahoo will work. But if you want the ultimate in reminders you need Google, which provides as many reminders as you want.

If you run Outlook 2003 and absolutely need to have calendar synchronization because you’re not going to abandon your local calendar, presently you only have one choice: Yahoo.

All three calendars have different sharing approaches, too. If all your friends are on Yahoo or Windows Live, then it’s probably a good idea to stick with those platforms to make calendar sharing easier. Then again, with Google’s invite-a-guest function you can invite anyone you want regardless of where they may have a profile. While Yahoo also has an invite feature, its lack of Outlook integration is a real negative. Google’s invite feature is unique among the three vendors, and if that’s a feature you’re used to on your local calendar (work based or otherwise), then Google is an obvious choice.

Both Google and Windows Live handle multiple calendar views significantly easier than Yahoo calendar. So if you’re looking to deal with more than one calendar, that’s a factor to consider.

As all three vendors are online services though, each will change and improve over time. We’d expect that Microsoft will at some point offer Outlook synchronization as will Google, though neither does today. Google does not currently offer instant messaging notification for reminders, which is also likely to change at some point.

Thanks to standardized calendar formats like iCal and ICS, you can play around with each of the calendars and manually import/export data from one to the other. See what reminder/sharing options fit with what you need your calendar to do and how you like to work. There are a lot of little choices to be made in choosing which calendar should be used, and ultimately, it’s just a matter of personal taste and needs.

Just don’t forget to recycle that old paper calendar.