Google Calendar, available with a free Google account and also bundled with the fee-based Google Apps productivity suite, is an interesting product. While it is not exactly revolutionary in the way it handles online calendar management, there are features—such as easily creating and sharing multiple calendars, the “quick add” smart appointments, and the option to make calendars public—that make it intriguing. Those who use Google Apps for Business will have the best experience in terms of sharing calendars, seeing others’ schedules, managing appointment slots and other features. This, as you may have heard, is because Google recently did a "winter cleaning" and announced its intention to discontinue support for Google Sync and Google Calendar Sync for free accounts. (See the end of the post for a few more details.) Despite the pullback on features for free calendar users, there is plenty for a solo or small firm to take advantage of that rivals the business-ready MS Outlook with the MS Exchange server. However, the integrated views of Outlook—easily moving from calendar to email to tasks—take a little setting up in free Google products. Here are some ways to take advantage of the free Google Calendar by integrating it more tightly with Gmail and Tasks, along with a few other tricks. READ MORE
Originally published February 11, 2013
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