Facebook has taken command of many of the basic elements of social interactions including email, chat, and even mobile messaging, but one area where the social network has not yet innovated is the calendar. While you can create events and be notified of these events, Facebook doesn’t offer a Gmail calendar-like feature. Plango is hoping to fill this gap with the launch of its iOS, and web-based social calendaring app that connects with Facebook.
Using Facebook Connect, Plango integrates with your events, allows you to invite friends to events, schedule events and more into a mobile calendar. You will eb able to access all of the events your’ve been invited to by Facebook friends, and message friends from the app (though now Facebook has its own standalone messaging application).
Plango’s parent company, GoAct, also just raised $500K in seed funding from investor Esther Dyson, seven Finnish business angels, and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES).
Of course, the risk that Plango faces is if Facebook adds its own calendering functionality to both its web and mobile apps.