Thursday, April 13, 2006

Of course a huge amount has been written about Google's calendar today, but now that it's out, did anything change? I use Yahoo's calendar. It's been out forever. The interface is clunky, but I can't see how it could be better and still run in the browser. There are some features I'd kill for, but Google hasn't implemented them. Will I change? Of course not. Calendars are the most locked-in app imaginable. Once you commit to one, it's hard to contemplate changing. My editorial judgment: Google should invest more in the search engine, that's where they are built-in, that's what matters. Their calendar is competent, they needed to have one, now they do. But search is still their knitting. 

Last year on this day, a singing podcast.  

Scott Rosenberg explains why the Alternative Minimum Tax is increasing the tax burden on the middle class, as President Bush keeps insisting on more tax cuts for the super rich.  

Hot in NYC. High today -- 75. Almost beach weather. 

A feature I'd like to see in Google. When you search for a term that has more than one meaning, it will present all the possible meanings as top-level items. Each will have a wedge next to it. Click on the wedge to expand or collapse all hits related to that meaning. That way if you're searching for Bull Mancuso, you won't have to consider hits related to the body parts shop in Syracuse, NY; or the restaurant in Peekskill. It's possible that this can extend into a multi-level hierarchy and can be prioritized by who you are. Suppose your uncle is named Bull Mancuso. Seems that should be a top-level item and come before the middleweight champion prize fighter of the 1940s or the former governor of Mississippi.  

Google Calendar Beta 

On arrival in NYC, I found an email from a friend, instructing me to go to Google Calendar. I did. It worked. Looks nice.

I figured it must have been announced while I was on the plane. I went to Memeorandum to see what's up, and there's no mention of it. Huh? I don't get it.

New Flickr set: Google Calendar Screen Shots.

Mike Arrington wrote a review.

Humoresque 

On the flight east I watched a Joan Crawford movie that I hadn't seen before. Humoresque. Filmed in 1946, when she was 40 years old. It's a serious movie, and Crawford is unbelievably good. In one scene she's in a concert hall and her lover, played by John Garfield, is performing, sending her into ecstasy. Two other women are watching her come, one is Garfield's mother, and the other his young girlfriend. They know what's going on and so do we, but everyone else is oblivious. The camera gets super-close as Crawford goes over the top. The movie is worth seeing, if only for this sequence.

The calendar feature to kill for 

Someday it will work like this but it will take a lot of cooperation to get there.

The scenario. I'm on Expedia, booking a trip. I add a car and a hotel. I click OK and it's all paid for. Now I go to my intinerary, and next to the link that emails me a copy is a button that adds all the relevant details to my calendar on Yahoo (or where ever).

Tell me when I can do this, because now I have to do it by hand and that feels is wrong.