Author Archives: Rakesh Agrawal

About Rakesh Agrawal

Rakesh Agrawal is a 0-1 product leader. Ex-Amazon, Ex-Microsoft, as well as a number of startups. He tweets at @rakeshsfnyc

Dash begins taking preorders

Posted on December 18, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Dash is now taking preorders for its next-generation navigation system. It’s one of the biggest breakthroughs in navigation technology and points to a time when we’ll all be connected as we drive down the road at 65 mph. Unlike typical … Continue reading →

Posted in dash, gps, lbs, local search, maps, mashups, satellite navigation | 3 Comments

Sign of the times

Posted on December 18, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I went to the E-Trade site this morning and this is the first thing that greeted me: It’s a sign of the times. E-Trade has had more than its share of troubles lately. Suffering from the mortgage meltdown, it recently … Continue reading →

Posted in random | Comments Off

Bad user interface design at Dulles

Posted on December 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

If the city you’re going to begins with P-Z, move the giant stocking out of the way.

Posted in fun, random, rocky's travel, travel | 4 Comments

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

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 →

Posted in reader | Comments Off

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

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 →