Google and CalDAV and CardDAV
Lost in all the hue and cry over Google, as long expected, killing Google Reader were its other products being ended. The most significant to my eyes was Google dropping CalDAV support and requiring all clients to use their Calendar API. If you subscribe to any Google Calendars via Apple’s Calendar you’ll note that while it has a separate Google menu all subscriptions are via CalDAV.
He also wonders about the future of CardDAV at Google and recommends Contacts Sync as a better way of syncing your Apple and Google contacts than the built-in support in Mac OS X. This might also be a good way to get your contacts database into Google Maps for iPhone.
Update (2013-03-18): Clark Goble:
Google updated that page about other products being end of lifed. Apparently they are now backing off dropping CalDAV. We’ll see what that means.
We worked with the developers who provide 98 percent of our current CalDAV traffic to assure access to the CalDAV API, which means many popular products will not be impacted. We remain committed to supporting open protocols like CalDAV.
Update (2013-06-06): Chris Welch (via Jordan Merrick):
In a reverse of course, Google just announced that it will be keeping its CalDAV API open to all developers. Additionally, the company is today making CardDAV — its preferred tool for syncing contact information — available to the public for the first time.
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S'weird.
I thought the whole Google DNA was 'open web standards are a win for us', which always made sense to me.
The CalDAV EOL seems far more significant to me than the Google Reader EOL.
Thanks, I just bought Contacts Sync. The UI is truly hideous and it took about 5 syncs for it to reach a steady state on my Mac, but so far, so good. I used to use Spanning Sync, which worked perfectly until it was discontinued.
Don't use Contacts Sync if you want a full sync of your contacts data. The last time I checked Contacts Sync did not sync custom labels (and I got my money back from Apple).
Google Contacts doesn't have labels, as best I can tell; it does have groups which Contacts Sync bidirectionally synchronizes with OS X Contacts groups.
The real problem is, it's $2. I'd gladly pay $20 for something more polished.
