Google’s beta release marks a growing challenge to Microsoft

Google’s long awaited debut in web-based calendaring is proving a hot date in the blogosphere, though its lack of integration with Microsoft Outlook is seen by many as a missing capability.

Several commentators said that compared to other beta releases, such as Google Video and Google Base, Google Calendar looks closer to being a fully-fledged product.

Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed site described the Google Calendar beta as having a “spiffy interface” and “outrageously cool” English syntax to add events, but said that Google Mail integration and Outlook synchronisation lacked polish.

Overall, Kedrosky ranked the service as “a much more important shot across [Microsoft’s bow] than the Writely [web word-processor] purchase”.

Om Malik on the GigaOM blog wrote: “[For] someone who [has been] spoiled by 30 Boxes and Zimbra, Google Calendar is going to look pretty mundane. However, for mainstream users looking for a simple web-based calendar that is easy to use, Google Calendar seems to be quite capable.”

Malik, like Kedrosky and several others, also commented on the uncluttered “minimalist” user interface. He also praised email and [US] SMS notification of appointments.

On Techcrunch, Michael Arrington wrote a longer review, lauding the Google Calendar as “fast, slick and stable”.

Prospective users can tour the Google Calendar feature set.