<p>I get why so many people are upset that Google is closing down its RSS Web service, Google Reader. There's even a "keep Google Reader alive" petition that's already crossed the 50,000 signers mark. But, you could argue that the decade-plus old RSS technology has already seen its best days. And, besides, there are lots of other RSS readers. Google killing off CalDAV, though, now that's a real problem.Google has just made it a lot harder for Microsoft, or anyone else, to work with their calendaring services.</p><p>CalDAV, for those who don't know it, is an open standard for Web-based calendar services. It's used in Apple's iCal, Mozilla's Calendar Project-based programs, and a host of other calendaring, e-mail, and groupware programs. It's as close to a lingua franca for calendaring applications as we have, and now Google will only be supporting it for "whitelisted developers, and will be shut down for other developers on September 16, 2013."</p><p>What Google wants developers to do instead of supporting this open Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard is to use Google Calendar API (application programming interface) instead. Excuse me, what's wrong with just supporting CalDAV? Could it have something to do with an ongoing feud between Google and Microsoft?</p><p>Recently, Google announced that they were dropping Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support for syncing e-mail, contacts and calendar for non-paying Google customers. That would have left many Windows Phone users high and dry. So, Microsoft announced that they'd start "building support into our software for the new sync protocols Google is using for calendar and contactsCalDAV and CardDAV. These new protocols, combined with our existing support for the IMAP protocol for email, will enable Windows Phone users to continue to connect to Google services after July 31, 2013."</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/google-do-what-you-want-with-reader-but-dont-kill-caldav-7000012628/">Keep reading...</a></p>