Smooth Scheduling with a Free Web Tool

Think back to the last time you had to schedule a meeting with multiple people outside your company. You're gritting your teeth, right?

A new free Web tool named TimeBridge can take away much of the aggravation that comes with all the back-and-forth e-mails trying to find a time for people who don't share the same company calendar. You create a meeting and propose up to five meeting times. E-mail recipients (who don't have to sign up with TimeBridge) choose which times work for them and which don't, and the system automatically chooses a time based on all the attendee responses.

PC World's recent review provides a good break-down of its ups-and-downs (mostly ups), but here are a few highlights I particularly like:

TimeBridge can tie in with your Google or Outlook calendar and display existing entries when you create a meeting through TimeBridge. Also, when you send out an invite with proposed times, it will automatically create calendar entries in either (which start with '[TB - Tentative]' for easy recognition). Then, when the system chooses a meeting time, it removes the tentative entries and adds a confirmed event.

You and the attendees also get a confirmation e-mail, which includes a 'Download to Calendar' link that can add the event to an Outlook, Google or Yahoo calendar, and also to Apple iCal, for people not signed up with TimeBridge.

What's more, you can click a button while creating the meeting and get a free conference call number through TimeBridge. It's not toll-free, so meeting participants will either have to pay long-distance or use a cell phone or VoIP system with free LD.

All in all, it's a great example of the Web's promise for business tools.