The more time you spend online, the more sense it makes to manage your time with an online calendar.
Online calendars alert you to impending appointments, help you keep and back up your agenda without stacks of paper, and let you share your schedule with trusted associates or the general public. You can access an online calendar from any Internet-connected computer and integrate one with your e-mail.
Dozens of good Web-based calendars exist today, but the big players are Yahoo and Google. Which calendar is more of a time-management knockout? Yahoo Calendar has been the most popular tool of its kind since 1998, but the recent release of the dynamic Google Calendar beta has shaken up the scene. We'll break down the features to help you decide whether you should stay true to Yahoo's pioneering calendar or be a Google go-getter.
Round 1: Interface & navigation
Let's make life easy.
Which online calendar is easier to use? It's a tough call; both Yahoo Calendar and the Google Calendar beta are easy on the eyes. They both feature plenty of white space and are intuitive to learn. And, of course, no installation is required for either free calendar; just set up an account and log in.
Each service offers a two-pane layout similar to that of Microsoft Outlook, with a mini monthly view on the left and the central calendar eating up most of the screen. Just click a tab to display events by day, week, or month; Yahoo Calendar adds a yearly view and the Google Calendar beta throws in a forecast of four days, or whatever time range you prefer. Within both services, a tiny left-hand calendar highlights the date you've landed on within the main pane. We prefer Google's Agenda option over Yahoo's Event Lists, but only Yahoo offers the option of tracking, prioritising, and marking tasks as completed. Yahoo also provides more options for customising a colour theme and adding calendar photos.
When it comes time to add or edit an event, Google Calendar has the edge. Just click the mouse once on a day or time of day, and Google pops up a bubble ready to accept your text. Yahoo Calendar, on the other hand, makes you click on a specific time or on a tiny Add link to create an appointment. And only Google offers keyboard shortcuts for most of its common functions, so you can drop the mouse altogether and select Shift+C on the keyboard to insert an appointment. On top of that advantage, Google's pages are noticeably faster to flip through.
Winner: Although both calendars offer a lean, mean interface, Google pulls a quick one-two punch with its keyboard shortcuts and gets the best of Yahoo.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | |||||
| X |
Round 2: Importing, exporting & syncing
Can you take your calendar with you?
Both Yahoo Calendar and Google Calendar beta are accessible from any Web browser, but what about when your PC is offline or you're away from a computer altogether? Which service can you back up and read from your hard drive or mobile device?
We had no problems importing and exporting data to both calendar contenders. If you already use Microsoft Outlook, you can easily export its appointments to both Yahoo Calendar and the Google Calendar beta (Google also supports XML, iCal, and CSV standards). But only Yahoo Calendar can synchronise with Outlook 2003, Outlook Express 6, Pocket PCs, Act 2000 and 6, and Lotus 6. That means you can use either the Web or Outlook to look at the same schedule. With Google, you can both import from and export data to Outlook, but it's a more manual and risky process than it is with Yahoo's free Intellisync app.
Google's failure to synchronise made its calendar inconvenient. For example, after we'd changed a recurring appointment within Outlook, we found no easy way to update it on our Google Calendar. We took a stab by reimporting our Outlook file; to our horror, Google Calendar duplicated all of our events rather than recognising the extras. And because some duplicates recurred daily, we were stuck with a pair of 9 a.m. meetings into eternity. If you rely on juggling calendars from more than one source, at this time, only Yahoo Calendar can handle the challenge.
The winner? Not even close. Yahoo Calendar stands strong in this round.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | x | ||||
| x |
Round 3: Integration
Which calendar works seamlessly with other services?
Part of the convenience of using a calendar from Yahoo or Google is that the big brands offer shortcuts to their other services. Yahoo Calendar links to Yahoo Mail, just as Google Calendar links to Gmail. Stick with one brand, and you can move between checking your inbox and appointments without having to log in twice. Both Yahoo and Google can also send you calendar reminders via their respective e-mail apps.
Unlike with Google, you can retrieve your Yahoo Address book from Yahoo Calendar to add a contact to a meeting. By contrast, Google Calendar doesn't let you view a list of names in your Gmail address book; instead, it autocompletes your typing as you spell out any e-mail handle already saved within your Gmail account. As for instant messaging, Yahoo Messenger with Voice displays your Yahoo Calendar, unlike the bare-bones Google Talk beta.
But is that all the integration that these Internet powerhouses can muster? We were feeling underwhelmed, until we checked our Gmail inbox. Lo and behold, Google's natural language feature detected that a friend's e-mail contained a meal invitation. Google flagged "dinner at 8pm on tuesday?" and gave us the option to add the date -- right place and time, no less -- to our Google Calendar.
This one's a close call; both Yahoo and Google connect their calendars and e-mail apps with links and alerts. Only Yahoo's instant messenger links to your appointments, but this is no overwhelming benefit. In this close round, we give the edge to Google Calendar because the natural-language recognition capabilities spare us time and typing and encourage us to schedule events we might have otherwise left to languish in an e-mail message.
The winner? Google.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | x | ||||
| x | x |
Round 4: Sharing
No calendar is an island.
More than helping you keep an office or a household running smoothly, online calendars should be open to online and real-world events. Yahoo Calendar and the Google Calendar beta each give you the option to share your schedule with the public at large or just with friends and colleagues. In return, both services can display other people's calendars alongside your own. So what do Yahoo and Google do differently when it comes to calendar sharing? Yahoo connects you with its own Yahoo Groups, many of which are well-established communities (more than 6,500 labelled "San Francisco," for instance). If you're a member of any of these online communities, Time Guides within the Yahoo Calendar interface help you view events from particular Yahoo Groups next to your own. Plus, you can add events from Yahoo's Upcoming.org, which also exports to Google Calendar.
But we'd also like the chance to find events hosted by users of other calendar brands, which Google makes possible. A search field within Google Calendar beta lets you type in a keyword and hunt within public calendars without leaving the page. Because Google Calendar works with XML feeds, it can search a broader array of sources than can its Yahoo rival. We looked up "San Francisco" and found 312 matching calendars (less than in Yahoo Groups, but give it time to catch up). We added a list of electronic music shows to our Google Calendar with one click on the Add Calendar button. The concerts instantly appeared within our calendar, colour-coded to help us distinguish them.
While both services made it painless to share calendars with friends, the Google Calendar beta makes it easier than Yahoo does to add events from multiple sources.
The winner? Google.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | x | ||||
| x | x | x |
Round 5: Service & support
Rescue me!
When you feel stuck with a quirky software feature, nothing is more frustrating than hunting for help without any hope of human contact. Unfortunately, both Yahoo Calendar and the Google Calendar beta limit their support to online options. Granted, both services are free, so what do you expect? While e-mail and phone support are on our wish list (dream on), at least the searchable knowledge bases provided by both vendors are thorough and well organised.
Peer support for Yahoo Calendar is available in the form of informal Yahoo user groups, but you're left on your own to find that link. At least Google Calendar's help page offers a link to a user discussion group, so we could immediately learn that fellow users shared our gripe about duplicated events.
A simple link to peer support within the Google Calendar beta's help page makes it the champion of this round.
The winner? Google.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | x | ||||
| x | x | x | x |
The winner is ...
But decide for yourself which service can champion your needs.
The speedy, elegant upstart Google Calendar beta prevails in this prizefight. But if you absolutely must match your online appointments regularly with those in Microsoft Outlook or a mobile device, only Yahoo can serve you for now. Still, Google Calendar is in beta, so it's a product in process, and synchronisation with Outlook is expected within a matter of months.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | |
| Yahoo | x | ||||
| x | x | x | x |
