Anagram is a program for quickly parsing copied text to fit into the correct fields of software like Microsoft Outlook. It does a pretty good job, too; I’ve been using it for years. But recently it launched a free online version of its software via an iGoogle gadget, allowing users to parse text into Gmail or Google Calendar (and Jigsaw, though I’ve not tried it.)

Verdict: Not bad, but needs work.

My ten minutes: You’ll need iGoogle—Google’s version of NetVibes and Pageflakes—and you’ll need to install the gadget. That’s easy enough: Click on the appropriate buttons and you’re good to go:

Now copy an address or an event and paste it into the gadget text box:

You’ll be prompted to allow access to Gmail:

And then, hey presto, the copied text should be in the relevant fields of Gmail:

You won’t see the contact (or event) until you refresh your Google Calendar (or Gmail) page:

This is not bad for free, and useful if you’re a big user of Google products. But it’s too many steps and browser windows for me, especially compared to the Anagram standalone app—one keystroke and you’re pretty much done.

And while Gmail is actually a very useful place to dump contacts, it’s not so good for getting them out—most synchronizing applications don’t take stuff out of Gmail, although they will put stuff in. So it makes more sense, for example, to capture contacts in this way and put them into, say, Outlook, and then synchronize those contacts with Gmail than try to do it the other way around.

Another grumble: It doesn’t seem to like it if you’ve already got a contact of the same name in your address book. An error appears:

And Gmail offers no easy way to merge contacts in your database so no hope there.

That said, kudos to the guys at Anagram for offering something of their otherwise excellent product for free.

Bottom line: useful if you’re a big user of iGoogle, Google Calendar and Gmail. Or, I suppose, Jigsaw. Otherwise, don’t bother.