I tried out Google Calendar a few days ago. I switched immediately and I haven’t looked back. It really is that clever. Now there’s a Google Data API as well. I noticed these Google data “elements” in the developer’s guide:

gd:geoPt – “A geographical location (latitude, longitude, elevation).”

gd:where – “A place (such as an event location) associated with the containing entity.”

gd:postalAddress – “A postal address.”

Elsewhere, coders are told, “Locations that work as Google Maps queries are recommended.”

Clearly, Google calendar and Maps/Earth are dying to be mashed.

If I didn’t have a day job and a night blog to attend to, I might have given the following project a go myself; instead, I’ll throw it out there as a request to the GIS coding community. What I’d love is:

A network link that maps any iCal/RSS/Atom calendar feed onto Google Earth by location. And while we’re at it, if in the US, why not also show me the shortest route between successive events? And if I block off a week and label it “Berlin”, how about offering the ability to automatically search for cheap flights on the first and last days of my holiday? In fact, how about a calendar you can subscribe to that automagically suggests holidays given criteria like maximum cost, length of stay and flexibility? Import a suggestion into your own calendar to order. All this should be possible with the GData API.

Pardon my vacation fantasy just now. I realize those last bits aren’t strictly GIS-related:-)