Scheduling meetings is tough, but rescheduling is still harder. We all know how frustrating it can be to try to find just the right time that accommodates everyone's accessibility and preferred working hours. Throw in different time zones and conference rooms and it goes from painful to severe. We'd rather list dental appointments.
On the Google Calendar team, we've noticed that when people converse about scheduling they say things like "I'm trying to find a time" or "let's search for a new date." We wondered what would happen if we treated calendaring extra like a search problem. Just as Google search applies ranking algorithms to return the most applicable results from the web, we hoped we could rank meeting times based on criteria important to the self scheduling the meeting.
Today we're launching the result of that trial, a gadget called Smart Rescheduler, in Google Calendar Labs. Once you enable the Lab, you can find a new time for an event just by clicking on a link. Our schedule search algorithm will come again a ranked set of the best candidate dates and times based on the calendars others have shared with you. You can examine more about it on the Gmail Blog.
Add Your Blogs/Sites
Location has become a significant part of the way we search. If you're a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer's market, location can be vital to serving you find the right information. Starting today, we've added the capability to refine your searches with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel. One of the actually helpful things about this tool is that it works geographically — not just with keywords — so you don't have to worry about adding "Minneapolis" to your query and lost webpages that only say "St. Paul" or "Twin Cities." Check it out by doing a search, clicking on "show options" and selecting "Nearby."
You can decide to see results nearby either your default location or a custom location, and you can narrow down to results at the city, region or state level.