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Show HN: Boomerang Calendar - a smart calendar assistant in your Gmail

86 points by moah 14y ago

moah 14y ago
Use showhn as beta code if you want to download. ======= Hey HN, We just launched Boomerang Calendar (private beta) and would love to get your thoughts. It helps you see your availability from your inbox and streamlines scheduling meetings.
cloudwalking 14y ago
Better Calendar integration with Gmail than Google can pull off? Interesting. Will definitely give this a try.
- baydinalex 14y ago
  cool, let us know how it works for you!
  - wattjustin 14y ago
    I use Boomerang every day with Gmail and I think I would lose a lot of hair without it. Very excited to try this out.
vineet 14y ago
Glad to see that you have a great set of people endorsing you guys. I can't imagine people better than Andrew Carengie, Amelia Earhart, and Noah.
- baydinalex 14y ago
  Hahaha, I'm glad somebody noticed! We figured none of them would complain :)
- moah 14y ago
  Anyone wants to give us a testimonial? Send me a note moah@baydin.com :) You'll be in good company with Andrew Carnegie!
iag 14y ago
Why hasn't Google acquired this company yet? They've been doing such great work and they obviously have the right passion to make email/calendar better for the world.
- jayzee 14y ago
  Because they has been busy updating gmail design. To me it looks like Google has stopped caring about what their customers want and is focusing instead on things that they think we want...
zachh 14y ago
Boomerang for Gmail is already amazing, and this seems like an even more incredible addition to streamline email + calendar scheduling. Awesome job guys! Keep up the good work.
- baydinalex 14y ago
  Should have put the code in the post title. Sorry about that! Use the invite code 'showhn' (no quotes) to skip the line :)
nathanfp 14y ago
I use Boomerang for Gmail all the time, excited to see how the app can make my calendar scheduling simpler as well.
tomtom101 14y ago
WOW! Just downloaded, watched the video and tried it out. Simply brilliant. Only one extra feature request/tweak - instead of defaulting for a meeting location when using the "suggest times to meet button" could it also have an option for my conference call number as a lot of my meetings are by phone.
- baydinalex 14y ago
  awesome, thanks! we'd like to have the locations dialog remember your previous entries (and making your phone number one of those options is a great idea) in a future update.
adennis4 14y ago
I started using Boomerang last summer as I had so many emails that were getting lost in the mix. It was like having a personal assistant always reminding me to follow up. Excited that you have moved on to a calendar assistant as well. It's definitely where I struggle the most. Looking forward to using the product. Thanks.
- skrish 14y ago
  Absolutely. The cool features like remind me if there is no reply in the next 2 days has been one of the many features I use everyday. I have recommended this to so many folks now.
kalvin_ridejoy 14y ago
Doesn't work for me on latest mainstream Chrome on 10.7-- when I download, the button says "Keep" instead of "Continue" (i.e. it's treating it as a file instead of an extension). Then when it's downloaded the CRX, attempting to load it causes Chrome to try and re-download the same CRX file, bringing up a save dialog...
- baydinalex 14y ago
  uh oh, that's not what's supposed to happen. Can you install other extensions? If so, please email us at support@baydin.com and we'll see if we can help out.
  - ncavig 14y ago
    Same thing happened to me. Downloaded it instead, and tried to install and it still didn't work. OSX Lion, chrome v 19.0.1084.30
    - baydinalex 14y ago
      Can you send us an email as well? We tested on Lion before release this morning, and everything seemed OK on our end
- moah 14y ago
  Reporting back from what our support team found out about this download issue: If a user has his default download folder set to an incessible location (for example, a second drive that has recently failed), the auto-install script will have trouble. Just drag the .crx file into the Chrome window if you're having the same issue.
wordplay 14y ago
Fascinated by the nascent eco-system of apps built on top of email. To PG's point in one of his essays about fixing email...I wonder if the transition to the future of email lies in using email as a protocol. As applications are developed that better utilize some of the structured data within email, do we eventually transition to a world where very few emails under a certain threshold are read...but instead parsed for information content. Thus potentially putting the receiver back in control of the overall experience?
- baydinalex 14y ago
  I think you're right about email as a protocol. There are a couple reasons I think we'll continue to read most of our messages, though: * If the automatic parser misfires on one out of 50 messages (a really hard threshold to hit, as we've learned from building BCal), you still have to review the messages it determined you "shouldn't read" - so it's really not adding a ton of value. Just saving you the step of clicking the delete button * Deleting junk email doesn't take very long - 80% of deletions happen in under 3 seconds. That said, there's a ton of gray area for products like Boomerang Calendar, which facilitate the interaction you'd want to take, but don't choose it for you. We're working on some of those :) Thanks for getting my brain's gears turning!
waldr 14y ago
This looks really interesting, we started developing a tool identical to this recently - had a play with it and it works well. Well done guys! it's certainly got us thinking
amirmc 14y ago
Aside: Why have separate domain names for all your products? I didn't even realise you had more than just Boomerang Calendar until I read the other posts in this thread. Even going to the about page, didn't have an obvious link to the list of products (http://www.baydin.com/ http://www.baydin.com/). Just a link that says "see our other products" would be great.
- moah 14y ago
  Thanks, amirmc. This is great feedback. We will probably point About Us to Baydin.com home page directly.
cnu 14y ago
Great product. But do check for broken links on the website. The download page http://boomerangcalendar.com/beta/download.php http://boomerangcalendar.com/beta/download.php link to /beta/features.html and /beta/faq.html.
omnisaurus 14y ago
I was using boomerang BEFORE it was on Hacker News.
jonathanmarcus 14y ago
This is pretty incredible. Really clever. Any plans for iCal integration?
ses 14y ago
This seems like a good idea, with decent gmail integration. It's certainly one of the best approaches to the meeting 'time slot suggestion' problem I've seen so far. I developed a product (meetingShed http://www.meetingshed.com http://www.meetingshed.com) which aims to solve the meeting scheduling problem from another angle - using people's Google calendar data by a sharing mechanism so you don't have to send messages back and forth between people. There's advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, but this is definately an interesting implementation.

86 points by moah 14y ago

moah 14y ago

Use showhn as beta code if you want to download. ======= Hey HN, We just launched Boomerang Calendar (private beta) and would love to get your thoughts. It helps you see your availability from your inbox and streamlines scheduling meetings.

cloudwalking 14y ago

Better Calendar integration with Gmail than Google can pull off? Interesting. Will definitely give this a try.

baydinalex 14y ago
cool, let us know how it works for you!
- wattjustin 14y ago
  I use Boomerang every day with Gmail and I think I would lose a lot of hair without it. Very excited to try this out.

vineet 14y ago

Glad to see that you have a great set of people endorsing you guys. I can't imagine people better than Andrew Carengie, Amelia Earhart, and Noah.

baydinalex 14y ago
Hahaha, I'm glad somebody noticed! We figured none of them would complain :)
moah 14y ago
Anyone wants to give us a testimonial? Send me a note moah@baydin.com :) You'll be in good company with Andrew Carnegie!

iag 14y ago

Why hasn't Google acquired this company yet? They've been doing such great work and they obviously have the right passion to make email/calendar better for the world.

jayzee 14y ago
Because they has been busy updating gmail design. To me it looks like Google has stopped caring about what their customers want and is focusing instead on things that they think we want...

zachh 14y ago

Boomerang for Gmail is already amazing, and this seems like an even more incredible addition to streamline email + calendar scheduling. Awesome job guys! Keep up the good work.

baydinalex 14y ago
Should have put the code in the post title. Sorry about that! Use the invite code 'showhn' (no quotes) to skip the line :)

nathanfp 14y ago

I use Boomerang for Gmail all the time, excited to see how the app can make my calendar scheduling simpler as well.

tomtom101 14y ago

WOW! Just downloaded, watched the video and tried it out. Simply brilliant. Only one extra feature request/tweak - instead of defaulting for a meeting location when using the "suggest times to meet button" could it also have an option for my conference call number as a lot of my meetings are by phone.

baydinalex 14y ago
awesome, thanks! we'd like to have the locations dialog remember your previous entries (and making your phone number one of those options is a great idea) in a future update.

adennis4 14y ago

I started using Boomerang last summer as I had so many emails that were getting lost in the mix. It was like having a personal assistant always reminding me to follow up. Excited that you have moved on to a calendar assistant as well. It's definitely where I struggle the most. Looking forward to using the product. Thanks.

skrish 14y ago
Absolutely. The cool features like remind me if there is no reply in the next 2 days has been one of the many features I use everyday. I have recommended this to so many folks now.

kalvin_ridejoy 14y ago

Doesn't work for me on latest mainstream Chrome on 10.7-- when I download, the button says "Keep" instead of "Continue" (i.e. it's treating it as a file instead of an extension). Then when it's downloaded the CRX, attempting to load it causes Chrome to try and re-download the same CRX file, bringing up a save dialog...

baydinalex 14y ago
uh oh, that's not what's supposed to happen. Can you install other extensions? If so, please email us at support@baydin.com and we'll see if we can help out.
- ncavig 14y ago
  Same thing happened to me. Downloaded it instead, and tried to install and it still didn't work. OSX Lion, chrome v 19.0.1084.30
  - baydinalex 14y ago
    Can you send us an email as well? We tested on Lion before release this morning, and everything seemed OK on our end
moah 14y ago
Reporting back from what our support team found out about this download issue: If a user has his default download folder set to an incessible location (for example, a second drive that has recently failed), the auto-install script will have trouble. Just drag the .crx file into the Chrome window if you're having the same issue.

wordplay 14y ago

Fascinated by the nascent eco-system of apps built on top of email. To PG's point in one of his essays about fixing email...I wonder if the transition to the future of email lies in using email as a protocol. As applications are developed that better utilize some of the structured data within email, do we eventually transition to a world where very few emails under a certain threshold are read...but instead parsed for information content. Thus potentially putting the receiver back in control of the overall experience?

baydinalex 14y ago
I think you're right about email as a protocol. There are a couple reasons I think we'll continue to read most of our messages, though: * If the automatic parser misfires on one out of 50 messages (a really hard threshold to hit, as we've learned from building BCal), you still have to review the messages it determined you "shouldn't read" - so it's really not adding a ton of value. Just saving you the step of clicking the delete button * Deleting junk email doesn't take very long - 80% of deletions happen in under 3 seconds. That said, there's a ton of gray area for products like Boomerang Calendar, which facilitate the interaction you'd want to take, but don't choose it for you. We're working on some of those :) Thanks for getting my brain's gears turning!

waldr 14y ago

This looks really interesting, we started developing a tool identical to this recently - had a play with it and it works well. Well done guys! it's certainly got us thinking

amirmc 14y ago

Aside: Why have separate domain names for all your products? I didn't even realise you had more than just Boomerang Calendar until I read the other posts in this thread. Even going to the about page, didn't have an obvious link to the list of products (http://www.baydin.com/ http://www.baydin.com/). Just a link that says "see our other products" would be great.

moah 14y ago
Thanks, amirmc. This is great feedback. We will probably point About Us to Baydin.com home page directly.

cnu 14y ago

Great product. But do check for broken links on the website. The download page http://boomerangcalendar.com/beta/download.php http://boomerangcalendar.com/beta/download.php link to /beta/features.html and /beta/faq.html.

omnisaurus 14y ago

I was using boomerang BEFORE it was on Hacker News.

jonathanmarcus 14y ago

This is pretty incredible. Really clever. Any plans for iCal integration?

ses 14y ago

This seems like a good idea, with decent gmail integration. It's certainly one of the best approaches to the meeting 'time slot suggestion' problem I've seen so far. I developed a product (meetingShed http://www.meetingshed.com http://www.meetingshed.com) which aims to solve the meeting scheduling problem from another angle - using people's Google calendar data by a sharing mechanism so you don't have to send messages back and forth between people. There's advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, but this is definately an interesting implementation.