Author Archives: Rakesh Agrawal

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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

Lighting the way to the throne

Posted on July 24, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I stayed at the New York Hilton this weekend in one of their renovated guest rooms. One piece of technology in the room caught my eye: a sensor-activated light. You step out of bed and LEDs at floor level automatically … Continue reading →

Posted in hotels, travel | Comments Off on Lighting the way to the throne

Unleashing the power of the buddy list

Posted on July 21, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been using a number of different social networking sites recently – LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, AIM Pages, Digg, Netscape, YouTube, Yelp, Netflix. With every one of them, I face the same problem. When I join, I’m all by lonesome. (Except … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, im, instant messaging, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | 6 Comments

The remote control lockbox

Posted on July 20, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I recently purchased a Harmony 880 universal remote. It’s one of those gadgets for those who have a lot of gadgets. The promise is that you can consolidate remotes for a lot of devices into one. In many ways, the … Continue reading →

Posted in audio, consumer electronics, remote controls, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Show me the good stuff

Posted on July 18, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

When I check my email, I scan the list of new messages for names of people I know. This is something that machines can do much faster and better. With the volume of spam and bulk mail these days, some … Continue reading →

Posted in email, spam, web 2.0 | 3 Comments

Module-based personal publishing

Posted on July 17, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

On my personal blog, I’m experimenting with module-based publishing. As I adopt new services across the Web, I’m finding that much of the information I generate is blog worthy for the people that are interested in my personal life. On … Continue reading →

Posted in blogs, facebook, google, personalization, publishing, social networking, web 2.0, yahoo | 3 Comments

Local search – making people think like computers

Posted on July 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Quick, what’s the ZIP code for Georgetown? How about Clarendon? Unless you live in one of these areas, chances are you don’t know. I might as well have asked you for the longitude and latitude. Yet almost every local search … Continue reading →

Posted in city guides, local search, yellow pages | 7 Comments

iPods and cars

Posted on July 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Nearly five years into the iPod revolution, there remains no iPod/car integration that provides a complete experience. For many people, the only option is to use an FM transmitter. Others can choose to play their iPods through a tape player … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, audio, cars, consumer electronics, ipod, mp3 | 2 Comments

Local reviews and credit cards

Posted on July 15, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Various Internet companies, including Yahoo! Local, CitySearch, AOL CityGuide, have been promising to be the uber-provider of local ratings and reviews for more than a decade. To date. there isn’t a solid source for comprehensive, credible reviews. There are a … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, city guides, local search, yahoo, yellow pages | 1 Comment

About me and my product philosophy

Posted on July 12, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

My name is Rocky Agrawal. I am a product designer for AOL and have been designing Internet services since 1994. This is a personal blog and in no way reflects the views of AOL. This blog will take a look … Continue reading →

Posted in personal | Comments Off on About me and my product philosophy