Even though incredibly basic, Gmail Tasks has provided a simple way for Gmail users to create to-do lists while processing email. Today, Tasks is graduating from Labs to become a default email feature accessible under the "Contacts" link.

Tasks graduation from the feature testing playground is the first ever for the Labs program, and demonstrates the overall value and success of adding experimental features into Google products. Now that proof of concept has been established, Google is announcing that, starting today, Labs will take up residence in Google Calendar too.

We love Labs, and we're excited to see them extended to one of our favorite web-based calendar apps. Here's how it works: in the Settings section of your Google Calendar, you'll now see a new tab labelled "Labs." There, just as in Gmail, you'll find experimental functionality just for your calendar, and you can enable or disable any of the options.

Google Calendar Labs is launching with six new features, and though they haven't been turned on for us just yet, the Google Apps Blog post introduces a few of them by saying, "Try out Next Meeting, which shows you how much time you have to procrastinate. Free or Busy allows you to see which of your friends or coworkers are currently in meetings. And World Clock lets you keep track of different timezones when you schedule meetings."

Plus, should you want to build your own Calendar features, you can do so with the newly released experimental API. We hope to see this API inspire a number of third-party calendar gadgets that we can use to better plan, manage, track, and share our busy schedules.

Oh, and if you need a refresher on the Lab's first graduate — Tasks — here's a quick video of how they could fit into your workflow:







See also: HOW TO: Get the Most of Out of Gmail Labs