Category Archives: social networking

9 ways to improve the Facebook news feed

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

As any designer knows, making a big change to a site with as many users as Facebook has is going to cause a lot of complaining. With that in mind, I’ve tried to get used to the new feed over … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, search, social networking | 3 Comments

Anyone can be a journalist

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

In conversations with people in the news business, I regularly hear about the need for “professional journalists.” Ask them what makes a professional journalist and the answers get wishy-washy. Is it someone who is on staff at a newspaper? What … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, flickr, journalism, media, mobile, newspapers, publishing, social networking, twitter | 7 Comments

Facebook drives 6MM people to Friendster!

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

That headline is kinda, sorta true. If you buy shoddy analysis from misinterpreted data. Like a recent piece from Henry Blodget, mass inflator of the Web 1.0 bubble. He is at it again with a piece on Facebook being a … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, google, search, social networking, statistics | 1 Comment

Realtime Twitter search is not a Google killer

Posted on March 8, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

There’s been a lot of hype lately about “realtime search” using Twitter being a Google Killer. John Battelle talked about it in searchblog. Mike Arrington talked about it in TechCrunch. There are two scenarios that have been talked about with … Continue reading →

Posted in google, search, seo, social networking, twitter | 3 Comments

Communicating amongst friends: how technology changes human relationships

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

I realized recently that I’ve been communicating with one of my closest friends over IM for more than 10 years. We talk almost daily, several times a day. I have no doubt that we wouldn’t be as close without the … Continue reading →

Posted in email, facebook, flickr, im, instant messaging, social networking, twitter, Uncategorized, web 2, web 2.0 | 2 Comments

I am here, where is everyone else?

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Since the iPhone app store came online, I’ve been playing with a number of mobile social networks. There’s no shortage of them: Limbo, Loopt, Where and Whrrl are all attempting to play in the space. The central idea of mobile … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, facebook, flickr, gps, im, instant messaging, iphone, lbs, mobile, social networking, twitter, where, yelp | 9 Comments

Your customers are Twits

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Last year, I blogged about how local businesses could use Twitter to reach their customers. In that hypothetical example, a street vendor would let regulars know whether he was working or not. A number of large companies, including Zappos, Comcast … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, customer service, lbs, local search, marketing, social networking, twitter | 4 Comments

All the news that’s fit to tweet

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Local, local, local. It’s the new mantra for news. I was reminded of this last week after the train I was riding in struck a pedestrian. The event was insignificant to all but a few hundred, maybe a couple of … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, social networking, twitter, web 2, web 2.0 | 3 Comments

How’s the weather out there?

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

One of the things that takes getting used to living in the Bay Area is the many microclimates. Temperatures and conditions can vary dramatically within a few miles. I was deciding whether to head out to the Beach Chalet, a … Continue reading →

Posted in geotagging, google, maps, social networking, twitter, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Unlocking the creativity of the masses

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

With the launch of the iPhone last year (and the millions of dollars in ad spend around it), Apple did more for wireless data adoption than wireless carriers had in the last 10 years. With Thursday’s launch of the App … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, apple tv, facebook, flickr, geotagging, gps, iphone, ipod, lbs, local search, mobile, mobile search, photography, social networking, twitter, where, wireless, wireless data, yelp | 3 Comments