Monthly Archives: July 2007

Virgin America set for takeoff

Posted on July 20, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Virgin America, a new low-cost carrier based in San Francisco, is set for an Aug. 8 takeoff. The carrier has faced some turbulent skies due in part to its partial ownership by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Initial routes are San … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, travel | 1 Comment

AOL is #1

Posted on July 13, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

In my piece on Nielsen’s shift to time-on-site metrics, I mentioned the downsides of using a single metric. ZDNet has a follow on to the Nielsen story that explores this further. The shift in methodology puts AOL at the top … Continue reading →

Posted in statistics | Comments Off on AOL is #1

One year of reDesign and counting

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. I’m at 271 posts over the year (including this one). It’s been a lot of fun. Writing this blog has given me a creative outlet and more reasons to explore all … Continue reading →

Posted in random | 1 Comment

I love that dirty water

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

FastCompany has an in-depth look at the economics of the bottled water industry. It looks at the distribution costs and environmental impact of shipping water 2/3s of the way around the world to places where you can just open the … Continue reading →

Posted in environment | 4 Comments

Yippie-ki-yay

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I went to see Live Free or Die Hard tonight. In addition to the pure mindless fun of two hours of chase scenes and car explosions, there’s the fun of talking about all the things that are so ridiculous afterward: … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, intellectual property, movies | 1 Comment

Smarts coming to the USA

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The Smart is coming to the United States. Smart, part of Mercedes, is a tiny car that you’ll often see in Europe. The car holds two people and two bags. I rented two of these in Italy in 2002. When … Continue reading →

Posted in cars, environment, travel | 1 Comment

Facebook is on fire

Posted on July 10, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Aside from Apple, you rarely see the kind and volume of media attention that Facebook is getting right now. The exposure is deserved. Among the various social networks I’ve been on, my Facebook network has grown the fastest by far. … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, social networking | Comments Off on Facebook is on fire

Nielsen tears up page view metrics

Posted on July 9, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Hallelujah! From the AP story on Nielsen’s move: A leading online measurement service will scrap rankings based on the longtime industry yardstick of page views and begin tracking how long visitors spend at the sites. The move by Nielsen/NetRatings, expected … Continue reading →

Posted in google, search, statistics, yahoo, YouTube | 1 Comment

How to create killer products

Posted on July 9, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

As I was writing the posts on the product development process, I thought of a number of the questions that I ask when I’m designing the actual product. The thoughts below are based on more than 12 years of product … Continue reading →

Posted in product management | 1 Comment

Google and the power of CDRs

Posted on July 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google bought GrandCentral last week. GrandCentral is a provider of VOIP-based communications services. I’ve been using it for about six weeks; it’s a great service. One thing that really stands out about GrandCentral is its use of call detail records, … Continue reading →

Posted in google | Comments Off on Google and the power of CDRs