Should more web sites be able to integrate with my diary?
When I want to know what time re-runs of Ray Mears’ Extreme Bushcraft are showing on the ‘Dave’ channel I tend to use tvguide.co.uk - and one of the features of I’ve increasingly started to notice is the option to get more info on the programme when I click its live link. It also gives me the option to view YouTube videos of the same content and even allows me to add the programme to Outlook so I don’t miss it. Now, I’m a Mac user so I don’t know what Outlook is of course, but I like the idea.
Should more web sites be offering to sync with our standard ‘Office’-type apps then I wonder? Despite being Outlook-lexic (note to self: good one for Urban Dictionary) I click these links and it looks like a relatively small amount of code to get this task done.
Wouldn’t it be cool if my favourite football team’s fixture schedule from bbc.co.uk/sport was downloaded to my Palm Treo? Hey, they could even try and sell me live SMS score updates (I’m sure you can probably get this already anyway), but I’m from North Somerset so I support Bristol City – and there has to be a cut off point with these things. Sorry, come on you Robins.
We read all the time about Rich Internet Applications from the likes of Adobe, so I wonder whether this online/offline personal diary element is a part of the next generation of web design that we are likely to see? I asked a web architect pal of mine called Adrian Munn from Monochrome whether his work with Flex was incorporating this element of design and I got a resounding yes. His company has recently finished some work for www.siblu.com (one of the biggest consumer based booking systems to hit the leisure and travel industry) and the book online function does indeed synch with your diary if you complete a holiday booking.
What’s next I wonder? Will it be RFID tags on milk cartons that synch with ocado shopping lists when the contents are stale perhaps? Bring it on.