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

Top trends and predictions for satellite navigation

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Yesterday, I wrote about my experiences with various types of satellite navigation. Here are some of the major trends in the space and my predictions for what we can expect to see in the next three years. Trends that will … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, cars, city guides, consumer electronics, flickr, google, gps, local search, maps, mobile, mobile search, satellite navigation, wireless, wireless data, yahoo, yellow pages | 3 Comments

A virtual tour of Whistler

Posted on March 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve uploaded and geotagged pictures from my ski trip to Whistler. You can see a map with the satellite view. (Judging by the lack of snow, it must have been summer when the satellite image was taken.) Geotagging will change … Continue reading →

Posted in flickr, geotagging, gps, local search, maps, mashups, mobile search, travel, web 2.0, yahoo | Comments Off

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