Monthly Archives: March 2007

Should I get a GPS?

Posted on March 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

When people get in my car, I’m often asked whether it’s worth getting a GPS. There are five big advantages that all GPS units have over paper maps and print outs from Mapquest and Google Maps: They will tell you … Continue reading →

Posted in cars, gps, local search, maps, mobile, mobile search, satellite navigation | 1 Comment

Text to car: go to the grocery store

Posted on March 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I said yesterday that it would be great if I could send destination information to my car from my PC via my phone. Apparently, Google has gone and done it. The catch is you have to have a BMW and … Continue reading →

Posted in google, gps, mobile, sms, wireless | 3 Comments

Journalists, bloggers and parasites

Posted on March 6, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

There’s an interesting discussion at the Online Journalism Review about whether bloggers are parasites: Over the past months, I’ve heard several journalists make the same comment at various industry forums: That blogs are a “parasitic” medium that wouldn’t be able … Continue reading →

Posted in blogs, journalism, media, newspapers | 2 Comments

Text to self: buy milk

Posted on March 6, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I finally broke down and signed up for an SMS plan. Since then, I’ve been texting myself key nuggets of information: Airline and hotel confirmation numbers Addresses and phone numbers of new restaurants I’m trying Shopping lists The easiest way … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, gps, im, local search, mobile, sms, wireless, yahoo, yellow pages | 3 Comments

USA Today goes community crazy

Posted on March 5, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

USA Today got a facelift over the weekend, with heaping doses of community thrown in. The new site allows you to vote stories up, comment on stories and vote on comments. Selected quotes from user comments are displayed on the … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Taking newspapers beyond tonight’s fishwrap

Posted on March 4, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The newspaper business works much like an old-style manufacturing business where stories go from reporters to assigning editors to copy editors to layout editors with the final destination being the next day’s newspaper. A lot of thought and knowledge goes … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers | 9 Comments

How is the ODP being used today?

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

One of my tasks lately has been looking at the Open Directory Project, also known as DMOZ.org. The ODP was started back in the late 90s as an alternative to the Yahoo! directory by Rich Skrenta. It sits between a … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, search, yahoo | 5 Comments

Touch-and-go credit card payments

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The AOL cafeterias recently added the PayPass credit card readers. Instead of handing your card to the cashier or sliding the magnetic stripe through a reader, the terminals allow you to just touch your credit card against the reader. The … Continue reading →

Posted in personal finance | 8 Comments

My commute as a metaphor for user-generated content

Posted on March 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was stuck on the Dulles Toll Road this morning because a car caught on fire a mile or so ahead of me. (Yes, that’s two back-to-back hellish commutes.) As I watched the helicopter hover above the car, I thought … Continue reading →

Posted in gps, maps, mobile, mobile search, satellite navigation, web 2, web 2.0, wireless, wireless data | 9 Comments

How much will my commute suck today? Ask Google

Posted on March 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was checking out Google Maps yesterday and noticed the addition of traffic to the map. It showed that traffic for the ride home was much worse than I’ve ever seen on a Wednesday night. Figuring it was a first-day … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, local search, maps, yahoo | 4 Comments