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Pre-mashed online suites: Google Calendar plus Gmail plus Maps plus Search plus ...

I can't wait to get a beta invitation to Google's calendar. That's one of the missing applications in my quest for an online home in the cloud.
Written by Tom Foremski, Contributor

I can't wait to get a beta invitation to Google's calendar. That's one of the missing applications in my quest for an online home in the cloud.

I don't run much client software anymore--gone is the Microsoft Office suite, gone is Lotus Notes, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, etc. Instead, I use a very slim html editor EditPlus, a browser, and my Treo/Palm calendar/contacts database.

My email is out in the cloud in Gmail and I even sometimes use Gmail as a simple text processor--it has a great spell checker.  Then I paste into my Movable Type publishing platform which lives on a remote server.

I have email, and publishing system already in the cloud, if I can get my calendar out there too, that would be great. I'd like to leave my contacts database on my client side although Gmail already has a lot of that data. And I'd like to keep my phone call data in my pocket or on my PC but not out in the cloud.

Lately, I feel more personal about my cell phone and its data, than I do about my "personal computer." I'm quite happy to have my email and basic applications such as wordprocessing and publishing reside on my server space somewhere or on someone else's server. But I want to keep my phone data personal.

This is not the way I used to feel about my PC and my cell phone--two of the most useful technologies ever created. Both have added a tremendous amount of value to my life--yet my cell phone (Treo) increasingly feels closer and more important to me than my computer (Thinkpad X31).

Pretty soon I'll be able to work from any computer with access to all my files and applications from any device with a browser. But only my cell phone is with me all the time, and only my cell phone can give me my email, calendar, contacts, and my phone data logs--who called when, SMS, etc, anytime.

Here is a brief analyst note on the CL2, the Google Calendar beta from Jeff Ubois at Ferris Research.

BTW, I agree that Google's calendar is bad news for the other online calendars. But they will probably say "Google's entry validates our market which is great."

But if you own the email and the search box and other online apps you can own the online calendar because it is all pre-mashed for you: just drag-and-drop/share-or-not (DADSON).

From Ferris Research:

"The ship date may be some way off, but it seems probable that CL2 will provide close integration with Gmail, syncing with other calendars and devices; SMS notification; and take feeds from event aggregation services. While all that may be good news for end users, it's bad for the current crop of Ajax-based calendars such as AirSet, Planzo, CalendarHub, Spongecell, and 30 Boxes. ... Jeff Ubois"

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