Category Archives: twitter

To tweet or not to tweet: thoughts on Twitter etiquette

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

With every new medium comes changes in the way we communicate and new social norms for behavior. I’ve written before about how technology changes the way we write. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the norms for Twitter. How much is … Continue reading →

Posted in social networking, twitter | 11 Comments

Online at 36,000 feet: trying Gogo WiFi on board

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

I tried inflight WiFi last week aboard Virgin America. The day I flew happened to be the same day Virgin became the first U.S. airline to offer Internet access across its entire fleet. I live tweeted and uploaded pictures to … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, travel, twitter | 2 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

Newspaper companies can’t unring the bell

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

American newspapers are in trouble. So far this year, the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have shuttered their presses. Tribune is in bankruptcy. My first employer, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, is also there. Publishers have threatened to … Continue reading →

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

Realtime Twitter search is not a Google killer, part 2

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

In the first part, I wrote about the fallacy of using people with thousands of followers to illustrate how you can get great results if you ask questions on Twitter. In this part, I’ll focus on why the conversational nature … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, google, search, seo, twitter | 3 Comments

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