Here in the Network World Web Applications Alert newsletter I’ve written about calendar stuff (both calendars and time booking systems) many times but, for some while now, there’s been nothing much new to cover. Until today.
I just received an e-mail update from WhenIsGood, an online scheduling service that I reviewed just over a couple of years ago, announcing their new, lightweight booking service, YouCanBook.Me.
To signup for this free service you can login through your Gmail or Google Apps account.
You set your account name, windows of availability (days of week and times of day which can also be individually set for specific days), branding (not just your name but also your logo and you can even choose to omit the “Powered by YouCanBook.Me” link; an unusual option for a free service), select the colors to use, design your booking form (this is actually a fairly sophisticated form generator), configure the auto-response to booking requests, and set up reminders.
What’s even cooler is that you can create multiple booking forms so you could, for example, have one for customers to schedule demos from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, one for co-workers to schedule meetings any time on weekdays, one for friends who want to buy you lunch between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends, and so on. If you need more customized day-by-day control, you can set up events in your Google calendar to reserve specific time slots which will, of course, be reflected in your YouCanBook.Me calendar.
You can select the subdomain of YouCanBook.Me for your personal booking calendar and the service also provides embed code so it can be incorporated into a Web site.
What YouCanBookMe.com displays on your personal booking site will be your schedule which, because it is integrated with Google Calendar, will show which time slots are available and only allow booking in those periods.
When a time slot is clicked on the booking form will be displayed and submitting it will send you a message, send the recipient an e-mail if you asked for their e-mail address, and update your Google Calendar.
This is a terrific service that will, I suspect, be hugely used, if not by the entire Google calendar population, then, at the very least, by me. Check it out and if you want to book a conversation with me, visit markgibbs.youcanbook.me.
