Deadline

Deadline (Deadlineapp.com) is a very easy to use online calendar application. Users can use it to keep track of their to-do list and appointments. Data entry is done with plain English phrases, which the application then converts into calendar entries. Entries are organized in list form. For example, entering the phrase “Meet Bob at 10 on Fri” will result in a calendar entry that shows in the list as “10:00 on Friday – Meet Bob”. Recurring events can be entered by using the keyword “every”. So, for example, entering the term “Status meeting every Fri at 2pm” will result in a recurring entry that shows in the list as “14:00 Friday – Status Meeting”. There are three buttons shown beside each item in the list – Done, Delay or Delete. These allow you to mark an item completed, delay an item to a different date and time, and delete an item, respectively. The application can be set up to send email reminders of upcoming events, with full control over when the email is sent. You can also set up calendar events by sending them in the subject of an email to the email address provided for this when you sign up for the service. Deadline also has the ability to send/receive appointments via Jabber/Gtalk and is currently in the trial stages of SMS send/receive capability. Deadline was launched in October 2008 by Alex Young, founder of Helicoid (Helicoid.net). Helicoid has developed several web 2.0 applications, including Tiktrac, an online timesheet application, Loom, an online helpdesk solution, and Helipad, a flexible web notepad. The Deadline site has tens of thousands of monthly unique visitors, a Google Pagerank of 5, and an Alexa page rank well below 500,000. Traffic to the site is continuing to grow steadily. Deadline competes with the calendar offerings from Google, Yahoo and Micosoft. While Deadline does not offer nearly as many features as any of these applications, it is probably the easiest to use calendar application in existence. The site continues to add new features, so over time the site may begin to attract more users away from these applications. The Deadline application has a very minimalist look and feel. There is no advertising displayed on the site. The user’s calendar page is dominated by a large text entry bar at the top of the page for entering events, along with a large search bar used to perform text searches on the user’s calendar data. Below that is the calendar list. The user has complete control over the look and feel of their calendar page via the Settings link. There are also small links to Help and Support on the page. The site is very responsive, with the calendar page loading extremely fast after login. Adding events happens quickly as well, although not as quickly as with a dedicated desktop application. Registration is required to set up a calendar at Deadline. The registration process is simple, asking only for name, email address and password. Membership at the site is free, but the company plans to begin charging for the SMS service once it come out of the trial stage. Other premium features may be offered in the future, but the basic calendar application will remain free. Deadline is recommended to anyone looking for a very easy to use calendar application. The ability to enter events using plain English phrases makes the site extremely user friendly. The event send/receive capabilities provided by the site make the application a complete appointment, to-do list and calendar application. The major features lacking from the site is synchronization with desktop applications and mobile devices and sharing calendars with other members. For users who do not need this capability, the site is an excellent alternative to the Google, Yahoo and Microsoft offerings.