Category Archives: aol

Attack of the wireless patent trolls

Posted on April 9, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I did a vanity search last night on the patent office’s published application database looking for some patents I’ve submitted. I came across a lot of patents submitted by Strategic Patents, P.C. The name itself screams patent troll. Trolls are … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, intellectual property, yahoo | Comments Off on Attack of the wireless patent trolls

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 →

Posted in aol, apple, google, media, microsoft, television, video, yahoo, YouTube | 1 Comment

Cleaning up my digital neighborhood

Posted on March 20, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

My neighborhood undergone a lot of change in the three years I’ve lived here. It’s been very exciting to see new businesses come in and sad to see some old favorites go away. (I’m still puzzled as to how the … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, local search, yahoo, yellow pages, yelp | Comments Off on Cleaning up my digital neighborhood

AOL launches local beta

Posted on March 16, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

AOL Local has a beta of a new map-based search product. It’s a solid first effort, and one that is competitive with offerings from Google, Yahoo! and Yelp. AOL Local plays up AOL’s primary differentiator over the competition: exclusive content … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, city guides, google, local search, maps, yahoo, yellow pages | Comments Off on AOL launches local beta

AOL – It Doesn’t Suck

Posted on March 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I have a T-shirt from the late 90s for an editor called BBEdit. Their slogan was “It Doesn’t Suck.” I was reminded of that this week reading through the comments on a TechCrunch piece about AOL’s new mail beta. The … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, yahoo | 1 Comment

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

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

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

How much will my commute suck today? Ask Google

Posted on March 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was checking out Google Maps yesterday and noticed the addition of traffic to the map. It showed that traffic for the ride home was much worse than I’ve ever seen on a Wednesday night. Figuring it was a first-day … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, local search, maps, yahoo | 4 Comments

Yahoo! Search knows what you mean

Posted on January 16, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was looking through the referrer data for this blog and noticed an entry from Yahoo search for “redisgn my screen on yahoo”. I tried the search to see why the blog would come up – it looks like Yahoo! … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, search, yahoo | Comments Off on Yahoo! Search knows what you mean