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The fine folks at Google have yet again released a free product that’s incredibly useful, and that integrates with some of their existing stuff. Say hello to Google Calendar.

I’m not the kind of guy that uses a planner or anything, but I’ve sort of gotten into using the outstanding Rainlendar on my laptop at home to remind me when to pay bills, and I’ve started using the calendar on my cell phone to remind me about birthdays and appointments and stuff. I’m just going to cut and paste the features from the link above, since I know a lot of you won’t read it unless I put it here and there is some handy stuff.

FEATURES:

• Calendar Sharing: Set up a calendar for your company softball team, and share it with the whole roster. (Your shortstop will never forget about practice again.) Or share with friends and family so you can view each other’s schedules side by side.

  GC note: You don’t have to share your entire calendar, and you can create multiple calendars with one account. For example, you can have a calendar for work stuff, one for personal stuff, and one for a group you might be in and only share the latter two.

• Invitations: Create event invitations, send them to friends, and keep track of people’s responses and comments, all in one place. Your friends can receive your invitation and post responses even if they don’t use Google Calendar themselves.
• Quick Add: Click anywhere on your calendar where an event belongs (or use the Quick Add link), and start typing. Google Calendar understands whole phrases like “Brunch with mom at Java Cafe 11am on Saturday,” and will pop new events right into your agenda.
• Gmail Integration: Add your friend’s Super Bowl party to your calendar without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Gmail now recognizes events mentioned in emails.

  GC note: If you’re not using Gmail by now, you had better have a damn good reason. Let me know if you need an invitation.

• Search: Find the date of the Baxter family BBQ (you knew it was sometime this summer). Or, search public calendars to discover new events you’re interested in and add them to your own calendar.
• Mobile Access: Receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone.

You can also import your crap from Outlook and other calendar programs. Give it a shot.

One other Google-related item. In Gmail, you can IM other Gmail users on your contact list while you’re logged in (without the need for a seperate chat program), and can setup away messages and things like that. This is what one of my friends has had as her away msg for a few days now:

It’s so nice to feel loved.