I am not sure who first introduced it to our community, but for the past year Doodle has been a popular and effective tool for scheduling group meetings. The simple polling site allows individuals to express their availability and reveal the best times for a gathering.
On Monday, Doodle announced a leap to the next level with the release of a Facebook application. While Doodle isn’t designed to replace existing calendaring tools, it does bring the unassuming tool a bit closer to the masses.
Doodle adds a Facebook Application
To use Doodle, someone first writes up a description and offers some possible dates and times, inviting others to express their availability with a few check marks. The most popular time slots usually win, but the creators are able to take the information and do what they want.
As the developers remind us:
“Doodle” is an English term and means “casual scribble”, “casual design”, or “casual sketch”. While Doodle is not a drawing service, it indeed makes scheduling events so simple as to make this an almost casual task.
The power of the tool is found in this simplicity. There are no master templates or attempts to shape polls to fit the detail of a specific kind of event (i.e. business meetings vs. dining out). There is no integration with calendaring systems or notification of results. Doodle handles one thing only: revealing possible consensus without littering an inbox.