Sidebar Gadgets: Coming soon to a Calendar near you

We've always believed users should have open and unencumbered access to their data, and Google Calendar is no exception. Whether through iCalendar, CalDAV, or the Calendar Data API, there are a multitude of options to access Calendar from other applications. However, developers have been asking for a way to extend the Google Calendar interface itself, and we've been listening.

Today, as part of Google Calendar Labs, we're opening up Google Calendar as a gadget container.

Gadget developers will already be familiar with most of this environment, complete with features such as OpenSocial for social networking and OAuth for working with third-party services. However, for the first time we're also providing an API to control and interact with the Calendar user interface. This means that even though your gadgets are running inside a sandbox, they are first-class elements of the Calendar user experience. In fact, many of the experiments we've made available through Calendar Labs were written using the publicly available gadget API.

We hope you'll share our excitement in opening up the Google Calendar interface. To get you started, take a look at the Sidebar Gadget documentation and sample code. If you have any questions or ideas for improvement, feel free to visit the Calendar API help group and let us know!

By Trevor Johns, Google Developer Team

Go Go Gadgets in Asia

By Min Li Chan, Google Developer Programs - APAC

It's cold and cloudy in Hong Kong and Taiwan this week, as our trusty weather gadgets indicate. At the Googleplex, where a quintessentially Californian winter is holding up, we had the distinct honor of hosting our Taiwan and Hong Kong gadget developer contest winners -- Hu Chih-Pao flew in from Taipei to tour our campus in December (see photos from his visit on his blog), while Alex Ng and Liu Chun-Yu visited us from Hong Kong two weeks ago.

Of the 190 submissions for the gadget contest in Taiwan, Chih-Pao produced a whopping 43 entries, including a real-time Taiwan Train Timetable gadget and a gadget for the Taiwanese traditional worship of the Buddha of Mercy:



Alex and Chun-Yu's innovative use of gadget technology caught our eye, with their real-time local Hong Kong TV program guide with keyword-activated YouTube views, as well as their Feng Shui gadget:



Japan's gadget awards last year also showcased great gadgets from a pool of 178 submissions, including:

The Earthquake information gadget:



The QR code generator gadget from our Grand Prix winner, kilo:




(QR codes are widely used in Japan to store and display information, particularly URLs, which can be scanned and launched from a browser-enabled camera phone equipped with QR reader software).

We hosted our illustrious Japanese gadget contest winners last year at our office in Tokyo -- check out our interviews with them here.

We're thrilled to experience the creative, inspired, and locally relevant ways that developers are using gadgets and Google APIs here in Asia. As a quick sampler, take a look at the submitted contest gadgets for Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong on iGoogle in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.