It has been awhile since I started using Google Sync, which is Google’s free contacts and calendar syncing software. It allows you to sync your Gmail contacts and calendar to your mobile phone. It does some nice things, but in the end, I decided to stop using it and go back to Apple’s MobileMe service.

Google Sync is free, so I wanted to see if it would be worthy enough to replace my MobileMe service, which costs $99 per year. Google Sync offers push contacts and calendar from Gmail to your mobile phone and it performs those tasks very well. I tested the service on my iPhone 3G and it works as advertised. Once it is setup on your phone, any change you make to your contacts or calendar automatically gets updated in the cloud and on your phone. Unfortunately, push email is not offered as yet, but the button to turn it on is there, so they will probably offer that feature soon.

Updates to my Gmail contacts and calendar were quick and painless. Changes to something in Gmail was almost instantly changed on my phone and vice versa. I never had a problem with functionality and everything worked very well. The only downside that I noticed was that the push feature used more of my iPhone’s battery.

Okay, so if Google Sync works as advertised, why did I stop using it? Quite simply, MobileMe has spoiled me. MobileMe allows me to sync my email, contacts, and calendars to my phone and all my computers. You can use a program called Spanning Sync (for a Mac) to get all of that functionality with Google Sync, but that costs money and is something extra you need to install. I also found software that will sync Google with Microsoft Outlook, but again it costs money. In the end, it is worth it to me to pay for the extra convenience.

If all you need is contacts and calendar syncing between Gmail and your phone, then Google Sync is a no-brainer. It is free, fast, and works very well. If you need to also sync your email and have everything the same across phones and computers, you will need to look elsewhere or deal with the extra paid software. If you use PC’s, I would recommend looking at a company that offers Exchange support.

Google Sync has made a good start. I would definitely give them another try if they were to begin offering features that allow me to sync my data across all my phones and computers. Until then, MobileMe is my choice.