Google Calendar gets some labs features

Google Calendar -- which was recently taken out of beta -- just introduced a brand new "Labs" feature. This strategy is a safe way for Google to test out beta features under a non-beta label.

Some of the new features you can currently find in Labs for Calendar include:

Background image Brighten your day with a background image in your calendar. After you enable this feature, you'll find background image options on the General Settings page

Attach Google Docs Attach a Google Docs word processing document, spreadsheet or presentation to your event. (Important: guests do not automatically have permission to view an attached document. You must share each attached document.

World clock Keep track of the time around the world. Plus: when you click an event, you'll see the start time in each time zone as well.

Jump to date Quickly navigate to dates in the distant future or past (actual time travel not yet supported). Next meeting

Free or busy See which of your friends are free or busy right now (requires that friends share their Google Calendars with you.

Next Meeting See what's coming up next in your calendar.

It's only a small list of available features right now -- but I'm looking forward to the day when they open up labs to third party developers in both Google Calendar and Gmail.