Category Archives: aol

Making online calendars useful

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google Calendar surpassed MSN Calendar last week and is inching toward Yahoo! Calendar. The biggest competition for all three: lack of use. For the most part, online calendars today solve problems people don’t have. Of the three, only Google Calendar … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, yahoo | 2 Comments

Searching for Web talent

Posted on December 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’m in the process of hiring two Senior Product Managers for AOL Search. The people I hire will be working on two very exciting and truly innovative products that have the potential to significantly improve the way more than 40 … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, aol, newspapers | 2 Comments

Rooftops and Google Maps

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was flying into Atlanta yesterday and as the plane descended to the runway, I noticed that one of the buildings on the ground with a giant bullseye on it – Target. Next to it, there was a building with … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, local search, maps, yellow pages | 1 Comment

Focus groups – the view from the other side of the glass

Posted on November 29, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’m spending most of this week watching focus groups. It’s one of my favorite parts of my job. It’s a chance to see how real people react to the products that we create. I get to hear from people who … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, research | Comments Off

Lots of free stuff from AOL

Posted on November 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

David Pogue in The Times has a great roundup today of many of the new freebies from AOL. He mentions three of my favorites – My eAddress, XM Radio and AOL Search – but not AIM Phoneline. I have to … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, email, search, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off

AIM 6.0’s Buddy Feeds bring another dimension to social networking

Posted on November 15, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Liz at GigaOm writes about my favorite new feature in the AIM 6.0 client released today, the Buddy Feed. I’ve been using it in beta for a few weeks and think it has the potential to really transform social networking. … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, im, instant messaging, personalization, web 2, web 2.0 | 2 Comments

Keep the telemarketers away with AIM Phoneline

Posted on November 2, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

One of my favorite AOL products is the quietly launched AIM Phoneline. With AIM Phoneline, you get a phone number that goes to a voicemail box. When someone calls the number and leaves a message it gets recorded as an … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, im, instant messaging | 5 Comments

MapQuest brings back aerial views

Posted on October 8, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

After a long hiatus, MapQuest now has aerial views on its beta site. Long time online map users will remember that MapQuest had aerial views long before Google Maps existed. Unfortunately, they aren’t as good as what Google has now: … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, google, maps | 6 Comments

AOL’s domain name giveaway

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

One of my favorite new products is AOL’s My eAddress. It’s the simplest way I’ve found to get your own domain name tied to an email address. I’ve had my own domain name for years and it’s definitely a process … Continue reading →

Posted in aol, email | 1 Comment

MapQuest introduces draggable maps

Posted on September 29, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

MapQuest introduced their take on draggable maps. The maps themselves are nicer than Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s, but not at the same level as Google’s, both in terms of appearance and performance. One big disappointment: If you do a search using … Continue reading →