« Return to: The Web's Most Useful Sites
| Calendar | Features | Best feature | Bottom line | |
| Winner | 30 Boxes | -Private, shared, and public events -Can subscribe to public iCal feeds -E-mail/SMS alerts |
Automatically pulls in data from MySpace, Flickr, Upcoming.org, or any RSS feed. | While you can't drag and drop events in 30 Boxes, you can tag them for sharing with others on social networking sites, and you need only click on a day to add an event and map appointments. It's the prettiest of the calendars, though you can't see a daily or weekly view. E-mail client integration would be useful. |
| Runner-up | Google Calendar | -Private, shared, and public events -Can subscribe to public iCal feeds -E-mail/SMS alerts |
Check boxes make seeing or hiding multiple calendars on one page easy. | Google has integrated its Calendar with a Google Desktop gadget, and the software detects events in Gmail messages. You can send invites with RSVPs when you add an event. The interface separates work, holiday, and personal calendars by color. A great choice for Gmail users, but other calendars have more features. |
| Runner-up | Yahoo Calendar | -Private, shared, and public events -No iCal support -E-mail/SMS/Yahoo Messenger alerts |
When inviting others to an event, you can check their calendars for availability. | While visually boring, Yahoo Calendar syncs with external apps like Outlook and Palm Desktop, integrates with Yahoo Mail for sending invites, and has a full complement of event options, including 28 preset categories such as Meeting and Travel. However, it will not allow you to import public calendars. |
| Also-ran | Spongecell | -Private, shared, and public events -Upload static iCal appointments only -E-mail/text message alerts |
Dragging and dropping events makes rearranging your schedule simple. | Spongecell understands natural language such as "choir practice every other Tuesday" and lets you associate maps, URLs, and images with events. You can also embed a Spongecell calendar into any Web page, and you can add events via e-mail, but the navigation is clunkier than on other sites. |
| Also-ran | Windows Live Mail Calendar | -Private, shared, and public events -Subscribe to Microsoft Calendars only -E-mail alerts |
Adding nonstandard, recurring events is easy with the included event wizard. | Live.com's calendar is largely an add-on to the Live.com e-mail service, but currently the mail service doesn't detect events in messages. While the basic task list is a nice addition, the banner ad takes up too much space, and you can't access your e-mail contacts when sending invites. |