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

A new local platform from Topix

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve written before about the need for newspapers to go hyperlocal — allow readers to get ultra-targetted news about where they live from their neighbors. Topix, a company owned by newspaper companies, is offering a platform to do that. Topix … Continue reading →

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

Where is the olive oil?

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was at Massanutten Resort with some friends this weekend and we decided to cook. Three of us piled in the car and headed for Kroger. One of my tasks was to find olive oil for salad dressing. This seemingly … Continue reading →

Posted in search | 3 Comments

Google’s revamped mobile site simplifies search

Posted on March 27, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google revamped its mobile search offering, simplifying the search process. Before, you had to enter a search term and then select which index they wanted to search: Web, mobile, local or images. Now you can type in a search term … Continue reading →

Posted in google, local search, mobile, mobile search, wireless, wireless data | Comments Off

Google SMS – a way out of voice recognition hell

Posted on March 27, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google is offering flight status information via SMS. Just send your flight number (e.g. UA 484) to GOOGLE (466453) and you get a return message with flight departure and arrival times, gate information and the airline’s phone number. (With most … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, google, mobile, travel, wireless, wireless data | 3 Comments

Watching time go by, flickr style

Posted on March 26, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

A terrific presentation from Andrew Tomkins of Yahoo! Research at ICWSM today. He mentioned Yahoo’s Taglines – another way of visualizing flickr data. Flickr photos and the top tags for each day float by. (It gets better if you start … Continue reading →

Posted in flickr, web 2, web 2.0, yahoo | Comments Off

Your car’s computer – friend or foe?

Posted on March 26, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Today’s WSJ has a story that vividly illustrates the tradeoffs that technology can offer between privacy and security (subscription required). The story explores how the increased data that cars collect can be used: That data could be crucial to guiding … Continue reading →

Posted in cars, privacy | Comments Off

In Colorado for the next week

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’m in Vail over the weekend and then Boulder for the International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. If you’re around, message me.

Posted in rocky's travel | 1 Comment

Stupid Twitter GPS trick

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Watch my progress from the cab, to Dulles airport, to the moon rover, to the plane, to Denver International Airport, to my rental car, to Vail Pass and finally sitting in my hotel room typing this. Done with Twitter GPS. … Continue reading →

Posted in gps, twitter, web 2, web 2.0, where, wireless, wireless data | 1 Comment

NewsCorpNBCYahooMSNMySpaceAOLTube vs. GooTube

Posted on March 23, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

NBC and News Corp announced a broad-reaching partnership this week that will feature shows from NBC and Fox on AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! — all the major Internet players except Google, the owner of YouTube. The major television networks … Continue reading →