Jeremy is summing up nicely some of the chatter around a potential Google Calendar offering – which actually is something I’ve been looking for since I first got my hands on a Gmail account. The most interesting part of Jeremy’s post, however, isn’t the entry itself – meaning no disrespect to Jeremy – but the comments.
Like my thoughts on Google Maps, though, my interest in a potential calendar offering isn’t with how technically slick they could make it. I’ve come to expect that from Google (here’s a fun exercise: contrast that with your expectations from a similar offering from Microsoft). No, beyond the actually-usable browser based interface, the really intriguing facet of any potential calendar offering from Google would be the immediate impact it could have on the low end of the enterprise market. Here’s what I said in June:
So is it possible to envision a scenario in which Google decides to implement the following:
1. Basic calendaring system as youd find in Yahoo Mail (only its actually usable given the performance)
2. POP/IMAP access for clients
3. Forwarding/domain servicesand we see SMBs start to consider it? I think so.
To review; they have POP for number two, and as for three have registered as an official domain registrar. What’s that leave? Calendar. Anyone think they can’t pull something really innovative together on that front? Ok, go look at some of the features in Google Maps and then come back and tell me what you think.
So put mail and calendar together with the ability to brand it uniquely, and I think we’re looking at a very solid – and this part is important, client neutral – lightweight collaboration platform. I don’t know about any of you, but we’d sure look at it.
For those that want the lightweight approach that Google’s offerings bring but crave a bit more control at the expense of maintenance, there’s always Hula. But should Google choose to push out and package up a Calendar offering, I think they’d get a hell of a lot of traction, particularly at the SMB level.
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