Category Archives: google

Could Google use Motorola and mobile to muscle its way into social? Does antitrust law matter?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

Today’s announcement of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility shines a brighter light on the antitrust conversations that were getting louder at the end of last week.  Bloomberg reported that companies such as Microsoft, Expedia and Yelp may have been asked to … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, google, social networking | Comments Off on Could Google use Motorola and mobile to muscle its way into social? Does antitrust law matter?

An Average User’s First Google+ Experience: “Ug. This Is Already Too Much Work.”

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

Much of the discussion of Google+ has been from the point-of-view of very experienced users and early adopters. In my analysis, I’ve really tried to focus on how a normal user would evaluate Google+, especially someone who was a heavy … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, google, social networking | 22 Comments

Google should just buy Twitter already. At any price.

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been thinking more about Google+ since my TechCrunch post on the Google circles colliding. Even if you buy the argument that categorizing your friends into buckets offers user value (which I don’t), that is not a defensible feature for … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, google, twitter | 5 Comments

Watson vs. Google

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

Jeopardy! contestants Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter got a spanking the likes of which they’ve never seen by Watson, an IBM supercomputer, last night. How would Watson do against that other font of knowledge — Google? Watson is optimized to … Continue reading →

Posted in google, search | 7 Comments

Apple and Google make their big push to TV screen

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

This year has seen the biggest push yet to bring the Internet (or parts of it) to the biggest screen in the house. The newly revamped Apple TV started arriving in stores and homes last week. Logitech is announcing the … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, apple tv, google, hulu, television | 3 Comments

Why small businesses are snapping up the daily deal

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

In recent months, we’ve seen daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social grow like crazy. Groupon is valued at $1.35 billion. That’s more than 4x the valuation of the McClatchy Company, one of the country’s largest newspaper publishers. It … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, google, local search, marketing, yelp | 3 Comments

EVO vs. iPhone

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve been using an HTC EVO since last Friday. As an iPhone user for the last two years, this is the first Android phone that has appealed to me.  CrunchGear has a good comparison of the technical specs of the iPhone … Continue reading →

Posted in android, apple, facebook, flickr, google, iphone, mobile | Tagged | 2 Comments

Can Google cross the retail chasm with Google TV?

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Rakesh Agrawal

Last week, Google announced Google TV, a product that marries the Web with TV. It’s a product category that I’ve been excited about for several years. But creating new product categories is hard. Retail is hard. Doing both together is … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, apple tv, google, television | 7 Comments

Past, present and future of online maps

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google announced yesterday that it has added more detail on its maps, highlighting businesses and landmarks. They even solved the Albert Einstein Memorial problem that I wrote about last year. Businesses and landmarks are important because they make maps more … Continue reading →

Posted in bing, google, local search, maps, microsoft | 4 Comments

Bing, Yahoo! try to capitalize on Google’s Michael Jackson traffic surge

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

Seen over the weekend: ads for bing and Yahoo! on Google search results for “Michael Jackson”. The bing ad led to bing’s xRank page for Michael Jackson. The Yahoo! ad bizarrely led to a Yahoo! shopping results page for Michael … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, aol, bing, google, search, yahoo | 1 Comment