One of the reasons I like Google Calendar is it's ease of use - specifically being able to SMS calendar events from a cell phone, directly to my calendar online. This allows me to add events without even being near a computer. Let's face it - getting away from the computer is a good thing.

Yesterday I received a text message from a friend:

If i can get some things done u wanna watch the bulls at my place or a bar?

I wasn't sure if I'd want to go out, but I wanted to add this to my calendar immediately. Rather than going to my computer, opening Google Calendar, and manually typing in the event - all I had to do was forward the text message directly to my calendar. (To be clear, you'd forward to Google's SMS number for Calendar: 48368.)

From my cell phone, I chose forward, added a little bit more information, and it was good to go. I didn't have to re-type anything - when I chose "forward," the initial text was copied over, and I simply added some more:

If i can get some things done u wanna watch the bulls at my place or a bar? 7 - 10 PM

You'll notice I added the time span (7 - 10 PM) at the very end. Google Calendar will extract this, and set up the event for that time-frame.

What about the location? Will Google Calendar know what to put for that?

Yes. Take a look at the text message again. See that part that says, "... at my place or a bar?"

Google Calendar will notice the word "at", and set the location as whatever text is after the word "at." In this case, the location will be my place or a bar?

For more on Google Calendar SMS interaction, see my article at Pain in the Tech.