Monthly Archives: December 2007

Weekly reader – December 15, 2007

Posted on December 15, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Interesting reads from this week: Why Lane Hartwell Popped the ‘Bubble’ Video (WIRED) – The hilarious video by the Richter Scales parodying the Web 2.0 bubble to the tune of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” disappeared from the Web after … Continue reading →

Posted in flickr, intellectual property, privacy, search, weekly reader | Comments Off on Weekly reader – December 15, 2007

Yahoo! Local gets Yelpy

Posted on December 13, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Yahoo! Local has rolled out some new features to increase the Web 2.0-ness of its local search product: RSS feeds. You can subscribe to feeds of all reviews near you. If you find a reviewer you like, you can stay … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, city guides, local search, search, web 2, web 2.0, yahoo, yelp | 1 Comment

Google My Maps gets bloggy

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google is continuing its efforts to turn its My Maps personal mapmaking tools into a geographic blogging platform. Back in October, they added profile pages for map creators. I wrote at the time that it would be nice to have … Continue reading →

Posted in google, local search, maps, mashups, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Searching for a search engine that understands deep dish pizza

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Update: If you’re looking for deep dish pizza near O’Hare, see my step-by-step guide to Gino’s East on Higgins. Having gone to school in Chicago, I love deep dish pizza. Unfortunately, there’s no Carmen’s or Giordano’s in the D.C. area. … Continue reading →

Posted in local search, mobile, mobile search, search, wireless | 2 Comments

Online subscriptions and dumb criminals

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

A couple of interesting stories from the media this week: Success Without Ads – The New York Times looks at the success of Consumer Reports, online and offline. The all-subscription and no ad products have been remarkably successful. The magazine … Continue reading →

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Buying physical space for online products

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

This time of year, there’s always a lot of talk about driving clicks to bricks: how online affects offline purchases. Whether it’s an actual purchase that is picked up in store or just online research that influences store purchases, the … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, marketing, random | Comments Off on Buying physical space for online products

Google Chat and AIM, together at last + free SMS

Posted on December 5, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google has integrated AIM into its chat in Gmail, delivering what Google and AOL announced nearly two years ago when they renewed their search deal and Google invested $1 billion in AOL. The integration is not true interoperability, like what … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, im, instant messaging, sms, wireless | 6 Comments

Hngry. Snd pzza now.

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

In a first for the U.S. pizza market, Papa John’s is now letting you order your carbs by text message. This won’t work for last-minute cravings. You have to create an online account at papajohns.com and pre-configure the pies that … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, random, sms, wireless, wireless data | Comments Off on Hngry. Snd pzza now.

Introducing the Rival Crockpots

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I haven’t been a fan of video games in general because they tend to be anti-social. But with the Wii and now Rock Band, they’ve become really good group experiences. Rock Band is an incredible game that lets four people … Continue reading →

Posted in fun, random | Comments Off on Introducing the Rival Crockpots

Facebook improves News Feed algorithm

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

In a much anticipated move, Facebook has changed its News Feed algorithm. The new algorithm rewards applications that compel their audiences to interact with them regularly. Scrabulous is a great example of a winner from this change.   Under the … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off on Facebook improves News Feed algorithm