One of the interesting trends in computing these day is for normal people, including media types, to become Google “fan boys”. What’s a fan boy you ask? Well, do you know any McIntosh users? Most of them are fan boys. Apple can do no wrong. Anyone who raves about a particular company’s products and elevate them to the point of sainthood is a fan boy…and Google is now such an iconic company with its own fan boy following.
And if you want to know a dirty little secret, I wanted to become one. I wanted to put my trust in one company to consistently deliver outstanding products and use them across the board. I thought sure when I started working on this series of articles, I would find Google to be the best. Well, hold on pardner…it didn’t quite turn out that way.
As I said yesterday, I use Outlook as an important part of my daily routine…not only for email, but for calendaring, to-do lists, and notes. The latter has become important to me as I make separate notes for my grocery lists, book lists, Tucson Wi-Fi locations, and other such things. Then, I sync up Outlook with my Blackberry and all those notes, appointments, events, to-do lists etc are transferred over my Blackberry. If you see me in grocery stores, you will see me with Blackberry in-hand.
But, for purposes of this article, let’s consider all three items to be part of the calendaring program.
I use all the Outlook tools and I want them in any program I choose on the Internet. As I travel a lot, I want my Outlook information on either Yahoo or Google calendars to be available to me when on the road or for backup in case my desktop computer drops dead. So syncing between Outlook and my Internet calendar program of choice is important.
As a Google Fan Boy wannabe, I started working first with Google Calendar. I immediately noticed that the calendar section was bland and boring to look at, nothing like the Outlook calendar I was used to. Then, I tried the to-do list section. It was OK, but not as detailed as I would have liked. Then, I went looking for the Notes section…but wait…I discovered there isn’t one. Well that is a bummer for me, to say the least.
I then downloaded a special Google program to sync up Outlook with my on-line Google Calendar. Well it did, but only the calendar section. It would not sync my to-do lists and, of course there was no Note section. You may remember yesterday I told you there was also no way to sync up the Outlook address book with Gmail. This lack of “syncability” is most disappointing, to say the least. (I double checked and Google definitely does not sync to-do lists or contact lists). This prospective fan boy was disappointed.
So what about Yahoo Calendar? I’ve used it in the past and was impressed with it, but had drifted away from it as Outlook became more important to me. So what about now?
The first thing I noticed was the appearance of their Calendar was far more vibrant and useful than the Google version. I like it better. As for the to-do section (called “Tasks”), it was a little to hard to find at first, but it was there as a tab in the Calendar section. But, I also noticed another tab called “Event Lists.” Clicking it showed all of my events and appointments arranged by date all on one page. Even Outlook doesn’t have that. I am starting to get impressed.
As for the “Notes” section, Yahoo has one…very similar to the Notes section of Outlook, but I think arranged more usefully. And, except for the Tasks list, all of these sections are in the left column of your email page…just like Outlook.
So what about syncing? Yahoo also has a syncing program for Outlook that you download and install. And guess what…it syncs everything…contacts, calendar items, tasks, and notes and it does it flawlessly. It also transfers all the attached information about appointments and tasks that I put into Outlook. So it is as in-depth as my Outlook program.
Oh, and as a bonus, Yahoo sends me an automatic email every morning reminding me of my appointments and incomplete tasks. That is so cool!
So the bottom line is, for me, Yahoo Calendar is fantastic and Google is not. Frankly, I cannot see what all the rage is about Google Calendar. It does not hold a candle to Yahoo in this area. Oh, and as a sidebar, two days ago I synced my Outlook calendar with Google using Google’s software…and it completely wiped out my Google calendar. There is nothing there now and repeated attempts have not changed that. Sigh!
I guess I won’t become a Google fan boy after all. In the next blog, I will compare some other similar products created by these two Internet giants.
