via Ajaxian:

Google Calendar has launched in beta, and it has a lot of great Ajax in it.

It feels like GMail and Google Reader, and has great performance.

There are some nice patterns, such as highlighting elements in yellow means that you can click to go into edit mode on that element. If you click on a date, the textual representation changes to become a date picker.

There are a lot of inline popups, pickers, and general helpful widgets that do not get in the way like other systems. A nice marriage of function without gratuitous Ajax.

Will I use this instead of iCal though? Not yet.

TechCrunch had a lot to say about it too including:

The Key Features

  • Text recognition - In adding an event, or detecting a new event from Gmail, Calendar automatically detects event-specific words and suggests the adding of a new event with data auto-structured.
  • Manage Multiple Calendars - set up multiple calendars (work, personal, etc) and view them separately or together.
  • Heavy Gmail integration - Gmail recognizes when messages include event information, so when you get emailed about an event, you can add it to Google Calendar with just a couple clicks. Google Calendar links on the right side of the Gmail page.
  • Sharing - Calendars can be shared with others, and you can subscribe to others shared calendars. Read/write permissions can be granted on a per user basis. Calendars can be published via a web page or via RSS, so readers do not need to be on the Google Calendar platform.
  • Importing - You can import events from other calendar programs, including Yahoo Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Click ‘Settings,’ then ‘Import Calendar’.
  • Calendar Search

What do you think?

Google Calendar Edit

Google Calendar View