I’m often having meetings (phone calls, really) with folks on the other side of the planet (Europe, Asia, Australia, etc.). Rather than thinking too much and trying to convert time zones in my head (and inevitably screwing things up), I turn to sites like The World Clock Meeting Planner.

There, I enter my location (Los Angeles), the location of the person with whom I’m meeting (say, Sydney), and it shows me a really useful grid:

Results from The World Clock Meeting Planner.

The green indicates the “safe zone” for scheduling a meeting (the typical working hours, 8AM to 5PM, for each location). So, at a glance, I can see that, say, 3PM to 5PM Los Angeles time would likely work for me and the person I’m meeting with that’s in Sydney.

Really useful, but not great.  I’d like something that’s better.  Specifically:

  1. Remember my location! Every time I visit World Meeting Planner, I have to re-enter my city (Los Angeles). It should fill this in by default.
  2. Remember my history. While it’s I might meet with folks across hundreds of different cities and time zones, it’s unlikely. Remember the locations that I’ve used in the past, and suggest them to me (like a sidebar that allow me to choose a location I’ve previously used with one-click).
  3. Autocomplete. Allow me to type the first few characters of “Sydney” or “Auckland”, and complete it for me. Don’t make me scroll through a big ugly list of possible locations!
  4. Be flexible with location names. Let me type “Sydney” or “Auckland” or even just “New Zealand”. If it matters (it may or may not depending on the timezones and time of year), force me to choose a specific city or time zone.
  5. Ideally, integrate with Google Calendar. Create a Google Calendar plug-in* or browser extension extension that improves the UI when creating a new calendar item. Allow me to choose a number of locations and see the “safe zones” for meeting. As above, remember the locations that I’ve used in the past.
Adding an event in Google Calendar. Aside from the fact that this UI could use a lot of work, it would be great to have an integrated world meeting planner.
* Does Google allow plug-ins to Calendar or Google Apps? Does such an infrastructure exist? If so, any good options for monetization? I’m sure something like this could be created and monetized for mobile devices, but what about the desktop?