More Calendar Sync News: Save $5 on Spanning Sync

Written on July 29, 2008 by EsquireMac

Yesterday, I wrote about Calgoo going free and Google Calendar supporting CalDAV. I also wrote in some detail about how our firm came to utilize Spanning Sync.

Last night, Spanning Sync announced a new initiative to recruit new users. It is in the nature of a referral incentive program, and it’s called “Save 5 + Make 5.” The idea is simple enough: If I (as a paid Spanning Sync user) refer you (a new customer), then you get $5 off your purchase and I get $5.

It’s an interesting idea. I’m going to go ahead and throw a link up here for my referral code in case anybody is interested in signing up for Spanning Sync. You might as well save 5 bucks while you’re at it and make me 5 bucks as well, because despite the fact that I’m supposed to be a rich lawyer, there’s a good chance I’ll be paying back my student loans well into my 50’s.

What’s the reason for this? Spanning Sync says:

Why are you doing this?
Since we launched Spanning Sync in March 2007, we’ve never done any paid marketing: no ads, no conference sponsorships, no press releases, no laptop stickers, nada. Just a two-page website and a blog. But in spite of that, Spanning Sync has seen great success, due mostly to the fact that our customers recommend Spanning Sync to their friends and colleagues. So in addition to saying “thank you” we’ve decided to actively invest our customer community with “Save 5+Make 5″.

My guess is that, in light of the fact that Calgoo has gone free and Google is beginning support of CalDAV, they are feeling some pressure.

I might give Calgoo a try before I paid for Spanning Sync, since it’s free. I’ve never tried Calgoo, so I can’t vouch for it. I’m definitely a believer in Spanning Sync, and have been using it effortlessly and flawlessly for the last 8 months. Google’s free CalDAV support could be the killer gCal/iCal sync solution, but for now it’s way too buggy to depend upon for a law practice, IMHO.

Spanning Sync 2.0 (presently in beta) does offer Address Book/Google Contacts sync, though, which I don’t believe Calgoo offers. At present, however, I’m not sure how much better it is than Address Book’s built-in ability to sync with Google Contacts. The killer feature, for me anyway, will be the ability to sync specific groups of contacts from Address Book to specific groups of contacts in Google Contacts. Charlie Wood, from Spanning Sync, says they’re looking into that feature, but it’s not planned for the 2.0 release. No word on exactly when it will be coming. For me, that may well be enough to keep me on as a paid subscriber in 4 months when my subscription runs out.

Hit the banner above or in the sidebar, or: Click here to save $5 on Spanning Sync!

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