Opinion: Those who see Google Calendar as just a new competitor to Outlook aren't seeing the bigger picture.Google recently launched its
Calendar service, and the response has been mostly
positive. But those who just see it as a new competitor to Outlook (or any other calendar app) are missing the point.
Its tight integration with the Web, its ability to link in with Google Maps, its ability to automatically sense events in Gmail and its incredible ease of use—check out the Quick Add feature if you're looking for a "gee whiz!" event of the day—put it head and shoulders above the competition.
But the feature (as reported by Charlene Li of Forrester) that's really going to break new ground is its upcoming open API. And it's a lot more than a doorway to cool hacks: It's a brilliant marketing move by Google, the first glimmer of an emerging digital ecosystem at work, and perhaps yet another indicator that Microsoft is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Google's Map API has allowed anyone with a bit of imagination and some programming knowledge to take control of physical space through some pretty cool applications.
Intrepid hackers have created everything from Virtual Tourism sites where users can tour the world via the Google Maps interface to applications that show the physical locations of Xbox Live users to guides to free university content, housing-finder maps combined with Craigslist, and even local news tied to your ZIP code.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg—one quick trip over to Google Maps Mania will be enough to convince even the staunchest of naysayers that there's some pretty cool stuff going on.
But if Google Maps has made Google the ubiquitous Master of Space, Google Calendar is going to make it the Master of Time as well. As Li points out in her post, the forthcoming open API will allow us to use the networked power of Google's calendar to take control of a whole host of time-based events. She uses the example of a hair salon scheduling appointments, but I've been thinking of a few other applications that combine both Google Calendar and Google Maps:
- Automated TV or radio scheduling: Broadcast networks could publish their schedules as public calendars that Gcalendar users could subscribe to and then PVR companies like TiVo could link them into their online scheduling system to allow easier point-and-click (or automated) recording of content. Take this one step farther with an online PVR system (like Germany's new Shift.tv service) and you've got total control over your media. Hook this up with Google Maps, and you could automatically record events pertaining to your neighborhood when they show up on the evening news (provided all these hooks existed).
- Automated business scheduling: If a business kept its appointment calendar public (with names of attendees blocked), it could then allow users to automatically schedule appointments through their Google Calendar (or with a link on the site), eliminating the need for human intervention.
- Meetups: While Google Calendar already has the functionality to automatically link meetings at locations with a map so that you can find your way to your next appointment, combining this functionality with personally published public calendars could allow you to see where your friends are going to be and when they're going to be there.
- Tourism/entertainment with scheduling: Say you're the National Park Service and you've got a bunch of events going on at the various monuments and other attractions in Washington, DC. Why not tie a Google Map with locations into a publicly accessible Google Calendar so that people planning trips can see what's going on where and when?
- School scheduling: As any college student knows, there are lots of dates to remember during the semester. If a university could load its academic calendar into Google Calendar and combine it with a Map of the university, students would be able to find out not only what they need to do and when, but where they need to go. Tie this into Google Calendar's SMS event notification and nobody has an excuse to miss a deadline!
These are just a few trivial examples to give you an idea of what's possible. The bigger story, however, is what Google's really starting to accomplish by providing open APIs to its major applications.
From a business standpoint, allowing people access to your core functionality has a number of smart implications. First, it builds brand loyalty by getting users locked in to your solution and providing a sense that Google's a company that works with users rather than against them.
Second, providing an open API is a great way to create a virtual "innovation farm team" of hackers who work on their own dime to come up with great new solutions. When someone hits a homerun, I'm betting that Google's gonna snap up their app.
The open API approach also encourages greater brand exposure as users across the Web build and virally promote their own applications with Google's software.
But most importantly, Google's approach to Web services through things like Maps, Calendar and Gmail has integrated Google into millions of lives across the world. As they expand their offerings (and intelligently tie them together and provide the hooks for others to tie them together), they form an ecosystem in which everything becomes integrated and indispensable.
In this framework, clunky, proprietary apps (like Microsoft's) seem increasingly irrelevant and downright old school. There's no doubt that Google knows this (its acquisition of Web-based word processor Writely makes the direction the company is going pretty clear).
They've mastered e-mail. They've mastered space. Now they've mastered time. You can bet there's a lot more coming.
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