Category Archives: web 2

Google My Maps gets bloggy

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google is continuing its efforts to turn its My Maps personal mapmaking tools into a geographic blogging platform. Back in October, they added profile pages for map creators. I wrote at the time that it would be nice to have … Continue reading →

Posted in google, local search, maps, mashups, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Facebook improves News Feed algorithm

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

In a much anticipated move, Facebook has changed its News Feed algorithm. The new algorithm rewards applications that compel their audiences to interact with them regularly. Scrabulous is a great example of a winner from this change.   Under the … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off on Facebook improves News Feed algorithm

Flickr places provides a wide-angle view of the world

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

My friends who’ve seen me walk around with a GPS as I take pictures on vacation or hikes think I’m a little bit odd. But apparently, I’m not the only one. In the 15 months since Flickr officially supported geotagging, … Continue reading →

Posted in flickr, geotagging, maps, mashups, travel, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Google’s My Maps becomes Our Maps

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google’s latest changes to My Maps allows you to collaborate on personal maps with others in much the same way you can share a Google Document or Spreadsheet. You can also allow anyone to edit a map. Group editing is … Continue reading →

Posted in google, maps, mashups, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Google Maps tackles the last block problem

Posted on November 20, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

A longstanding problem with online maps and navigation devices is that your destination is often not where they say it is. When you reach the “destination”, you’re often a few hundred feet from where you wanted to be. There are … Continue reading →

Posted in google, local search, maps, satellite navigation, street view, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off on Google Maps tackles the last block problem

Searching outside the search box

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

A large untapped opportunity in social networks is connecting people with information they’re looking for. I was flying home this weekend from Lake Tahoe and connected in Salt Lake City. While I was there, I updated my Facebook status to … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, search, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off on Searching outside the search box

Marketing on social networks

Posted on November 5, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Social networks like MySpace and Facebook are among the leaders in user engagement, with many users returning daily and some visiting many times a day. They’ve almost reached the same level of engagement as email* and have double the engagement … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, facebook, marketing, social networking, web 2, web 2.0 | 2 Comments

Trying new ways to cover fires

Posted on October 26, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Crises force people to think differently. Faced with a rapidly moving story, media outlets in Southern California have done an outstanding job in adopting Web 2.0 tools to keep readers informed during the tragedy. SignOnSanDiego, the Web site of the … Continue reading →

Posted in geotagging, journalism, maps, media, newspapers, web 2, web 2.0 | 2 Comments

Geotagged YouTube videos come to Google Earth

Posted on October 12, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Google has integrated geotagged YouTube videos into Google Earth. By selecting the “YouTube” layer in the “Featured Content” section section of Google Earth, you can see the locations of YouTube videos. Clicking on the icon allows you to play the … Continue reading →

Posted in geotagging, google, maps, web 2, web 2.0, YouTube | 3 Comments

The power of the social graph

Posted on October 10, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

There are many things I hate about Facebook’s Photos application: It doesn’t support high resolution photos. I get a Java cache error every time I try to upload pictures. You can’t search the pictures. It doesn’t use commonly provided EXIF … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, flickr, marketing, photography, web 2, web 2.0 | 11 Comments