Rajat's Stuff

Rajat Mukherjee's Stuff

2008-06-10T22:49:00.001-07:00

Welcome!

I'm fairly embedded in Silicon Valley - we moved to San Jose from New York. Check out my blog: Silicon Thoughts.

I've worked at several technology companies, at different ends of the spectrum - from IBM to PurpleYogi (startup) and from Research to Product Management! My experience with multiple search companies leaves me uniquely equipped to write A Brief History of Search - A play for 3 ages.

In reverse chronological order - Google, Koollage, Yahoo, Verity, PurpleYogi/Stratify, IBM Almaden Research Center and IBM Watson Research Center. I've made the observation that Silicon Valley is unique in that you can move companies without having to move your home :-)

My university days: I went to Rice University in Houston, Texas for my MS and Ph.D. after having completed my B.Tech. from IIT Madras. I did my schooling in Bangalore, India - St. Joseph's Boys School followed by Bishop Cottons...

I have a bunch of hobbies - soccer, table tennis, writing, music, photography, movies, ....too many to be really good at anything!

Here are some photos from some recent trips - Mexico, Brazil and India...

Rajat Mukherjee at IBM Almaden Research

2008-06-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

More fun in the sun.

I moved to California from IBM Watson - it was a transfer to the IBM Almaden Research Center. At IBM Almaden, I worked on Digital Libraries and content management systems - I created a very interesting system called eLinks, which had the promise of a web publishing system with a guarantee of no 404 errors - using Datalinks technology.

The Mukherjee Family

2008-06-10T19:23:00.001-07:00

Visit the Mukherjee family site! We'll try to keep it updated!

Ronny plays the piano and Rikki plays the drums! They write a blog: RONRIK - batteries included.

Here are some of Rikki's "strokes" - Essence of India.

RonRik's band is called Fibonacci. Their first album's called SHOCK.

Fibonacci : SHOCK by Fibonacci [2008]

Eclipse: SHOCK by Fibonacci [2008]

Some other recordings - Rikki's recent recitals, and a few of Ronny's piano pieces - the audio isn't great and need a do-over, but until then...enjoy!

Rikki: Kosma - Autumn Leaves [2008] (Rikki with Alex Yang, Ashot Mnjoyan and David Khevsurishvili)

Rikki: Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man [2008] (Rikki with Alex Yang, Ashot Mnjoyan and David Khevsurishvili)

Ronny: Senneville - Ballad for Adeline [2008]

Ronny: Bach - Prelude [2008]

Ronny: Bach - Invention #8 in F Major [2008]

Rajat Mukherjee at Google

2008-06-10T19:22:00.001-07:00

I currently work on the Product Management team at Google. I'm the product lead on:

I also worked on the rich snippets and related searches you see when you search on Google, and on Google Alerts.

I've been at Google since January 2007. Here are some launches, product developments and events I've been involved with:

2011

Mar 2011 - Search as the Dashboard for Business Action and Collaboration
Mar 2011 - Google Site Search on the Royal Wedding website
Jan 2011 - Drag and drop search for GoDaddy Websites

2010

Dec 2010 - More power to metadata
Nov 2010 - Google Site Search is polishing its pricing structure
Nov 2010 - New Google APIs Console features a new Custom Search API
Oct 2010 - Control over your Autocompletions
Oct 2010 - The new Google Search Appliance - a bridge to the cloud
Sep 2010 - AIIM Google Enterprise Search Podcast
Sep 2010 - Introducing themed ads in Custom Search
Aug 2010 - JibJab + Google Site Search = more laughs
July 2010 - As the world turns to FIFA, FIFA.com turns to Google
May 2010 - Autocompletion of queries in Custom Search
Apr 2010 - Google services now available at your hosting control panel
Apr 2010 - Custom data rendering in results
Mar 2010 - Synonyms made easy
Feb 2010 - Parallels Summit 2010
Feb 2010 - Designing the look and feel with XML
Jan 2010 - Changes to the hosted home page

2009

Dec 2009 - This year in Custom Search
Nov 2009 - Mobile Custom Search with themes and structure
Oct 2009 - Three birthday candles for Custom Search
Oct 2009 - Plug-n-play with Custom Search Themes
Oct 2009 - Structured Custom Search
Oct 2009 - Contextual search within Wikipedia
Oct 2009 - Google Experiments with new ways to search Wikipedia (Wikimedia Blog)
Oct 2009 - Google Custom Search for mobile
Oct 2009 - Google Sites turns Custom Search on
Sep 2009 - Product Ideas for Custom Search
Aug 2009 - New Tools for Google Services for Websites
Aug 2009 - Custom Search with Custom Style: Peanut Butter and Jelly
July 2009 - More transliteration languages for Custom Search
July 2009 - Better search on more websites
June 2009 - Advanced Custom Search Configuration at Google I/O
June 2009 - FatCow Works with Google to Integrate Google Services for Websites into Hosting Control Panel
June 2009 - Automatic Transliteration for Custom Search
June 2009 - Blog search and beyond
May 2009 - Introducing the Custom Search Element
May 2009 - Custom Search Promotions made easier
May 2009 - JellyTalks - Open Search
May 2009 - Enabling Rich Snippets in Custom Search
Mar 2009 - Google, at your service
Feb 2009 - Google Search Masters 2009 at Bangalore, India
Feb 2009 - Bringing the First Search Masters Conference to India
Feb 2009 - Web Hosting Service FatCow to Provide Customers with Google Search Technologies
Jan 2009 - Home delivery of Custom Search to webmasters

2008

Dec 2008 - Searching the Google Timeline
Nov 2008 - Google Site Search gets more demanding
Nov 2008 - On-Demand Sitemaps for Custom Search
Oct 2008 - Knol - now with Custom Search
Sep 2008 - Google's Tenth Birthday
Sep 2008 - Adobe users get help with Google Site Search
Sep 2008 - Google Search Masters 2008 at Caesar Park Faria Lima in Sao Paulo
Sep 2008 - Google Search Masters 2008 at Centro Banamex in Mexico City
Sep 2008 - Delivering Custom Search to your applications
Aug 2008 - Creative uses of Custom Search
Jun 2008 - Fresher related search suggestions
Jun 2008 - Google Site Search taps the power of the cloud
May 2008 - Sitemaps offer better coverage for your Custom Search engine
May 2008 - AdSense for Search now powered by Custom Search
Feb 2008 - Promoting useful information and web pages

2007

Dec 2007 - Ads now in harmony with search results
Nov 2007 - Custom Search goes global
Sep 2007 - A new caffeine-free way to stay alert
Jul 2007 - Hosted site search for businesses
Jul 2007 - Search your blog world
Jun 2007 - Custom Search on the Fly

Rajat Mukherjee at Koollage

2008-06-10T19:21:00.001-07:00

Between my Yahoo and Google days, I co-founded a company called Koollage. Koollage provides a way to create compelling multimedia content packages, called pods, for hands-free consumption on high-end mobile phones.

Koollage obtained a round of angel investment, and launched the product to good reviews, but does not have the funding to continue operations. If you are interested in learning more about Koollage or Koollage technology and patents, contact me.

Here's what a pod looks like - you can hit the play button and view information like a movie on an iPhone or Android device.

Rajat Mukherjee at Yahoo!

2008-06-10T19:19:00.001-07:00

Spent about 1.5 years at Yahoo! An interesting experience. First foray into the consumer Internet, and the first (formal) foray into product management.

I worked at Yahoo! on the web search team working on search quality. Besides working to help improve Y! Search, I represented Yahoo! at several webmaster conferences. During my stint, it was fun to have Google knock off the document counter during the index war between Yahoo! and Google. We also launched Yahoo! Site Explorer and some interesting features on Y! (e.g., active abstracts ... hmmm...SearchMonkey...). Also did some interesting patents. Here's one that was discussed online...

Some of the interesting projects I was involved with (update: looks like Yahoo!'s broken - I mean - broken it's links :-)) :

Sep 2005 - Webmasters - tell us what we don't know
Feb 2006 - Going deeper into the Wikipedia
Jun 2006 - Reaching the weatherman at Yahoo! Search
Aug 2006 - Our Blog is growing up, and so has our index

Rajat Mukherjee at Verity

2008-06-10T19:18:00.001-07:00

Now part of Autonomy - sad story ....

At Verity (acquired by Autonomy in 2005), worked in the Emerging technologies team to develop, from scratch, the Verity Federator (still lives on within Autonomy), and the Recommendation Engine - that enabled personalization, social feedback, expert location, and all sorts of fun applications, endearingly called the "Circle of Life" by sales. I also created the Verity Olympics.

I can claim to have written the first unpublished paper on democratic taxonomies, which was unceremoniously rejected by the "elite" World Wide Web conference committee - little did they know that folksonomies and tagging were to become a tour de force.

During our tenure, Jianchang Mao and I wrote this article Enterprise Search: Tough Stuff. Most of it still holds, I think...

Rajat Mukherjee at Purple Yogi (Stratify)

2008-06-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

This was one whirlwind year - but I learned a lot. More on how not to do a startup later...

I was the server architect at Purple Yogi (Stratify, which was acquired in 2007 by Iron Mountain). I built the first server back-end as well as the first set of client-side tools called the "Annotation Tools" used by the "Purple Brigade" (it was a .com startup then...)

Rajat Mukherjee at IBM Almaden Research

2008-06-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

This was more fun as there was more sun.

Great office, views of the hillside. Great lunchtime walks around the building.

I moved to California from IBM Watson to join IBM's Almaden Research Center. I worked at IBM Almaden on Digital Libraries and content management systems - I created a very interesting system called eLinks, which had the promise of a web publishing system with a guarantee of no 404 errors - using Datalinks technology.

Rajat Mukherjee at IBM Watson Research

2008-06-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

3.5 years in a cold New York. Did some interesting work, and got to touch history. Was involved with the web sites hosting the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games and the Deep Blue Vs. Kasparov chess games.

Only with a company like IBM do you get to do such things!

At IBM Watson, I worked on scalability and high availability. Several interesting projects come to mind - the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Deep Blue Vs. Kasparov, Video on Demand, Karaoke on Demand (Tokyo trial :-)), Network Dispatcher, HACMP - wow! That was interesting stuff - still remember having an 8-node SP2 machine worth 1 Million bucks all to myself, playing Sledgehammer over and over :-)

Rajat Mukherjee - Magar Kyon

2008-06-10T19:12:00.001-07:00

When I figure out converting from VHS to MPG/ AVI, you'll all have access to the first international Bollywood horror-comedy made with a budget of $40 in 2 weeks!

Rajat Mukherjee - Movies and Drama

2008-06-10T19:08:00.001-07:00

We made a movie called Magar Kyon (translation: But why?) when we were at Rice. It was great fun, and I learned a lot. Now I'm ready to make a real movie - where's the time and money?

I love watching good movies. Where's the time? My favorite director is Spielberg.

I love watching plays (real plays) - not a huge fan of musicals, although I did enjoy "Miss Saigon" a lot. I was Dramatics Coordinator at IIT Madras, and we also performed several plays, including Scenes from Soweto (a 2-person intense modern play), and "Star Spangled Girl" by Neil Simon, and several street plays too.

Some random movies that I liked:

Gattaca
Cinema Paradiso
Minority Report
Schindler's List
Star Wars
Jurassic Park
Sholay :-)
Masoom

Rajat Mukherjee - Music

2008-06-10T19:06:00.001-07:00

I love all kinds of good music - ranging from Indian Classical to Classic Rock and some Rap :-)

My wife is a very good singer (Indian Classical) - and I enjoy listening to music (tho' I don't do much more of that anymore)

NEWS! I've been learning to play the guitar and have been playing along with some Bollywood / hindi pop numbers!

I can just about play the Tablas - I've played carroms (not the tabla) with Zakir Hussain - so I'm effectively a pro! I can pick up simple tunes on the Harmonica.

Here's some samples from the family page!

Rajat Mukherjee - Photography

2008-06-10T19:01:00.001-07:00

I have a bunch of photos at Flickr.

Here's some of my photos (you can view them full screen):

Hawaii:

A series "One Two ... Many":

Yosemite:

New Zealand:

Rajat Mukherjee - The Temple on Kasturi Road

2008-06-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is my first piece of work - - a novel set in middle-class Bangalore, India.

I may need to edit it (I've only written the book - haven't read it yet!)

The lives of Narayanan and Prema Pillai and their three children Usha, Mohan and Rajesh epitomize the struggles of a typical lower middle-class Indian family. Life for the Pillais proceeds at a comfortable pace until the family ....

Rajat Mukherjee - Golpo - Short Stories

2008-06-10T18:58:00.001-07:00

This is my second collection of short stories, and it is still in the works!

Read it now! Leave comments below...

Here are some extracts from the Golpo stories...

Triple Take
We went to the Safeway store across the road to pick up some groceries, quiet for a while, not knowing what to say. Your friend could be on her way to a split with her spouse, but one must be pragmatic and get ones groceries when one is near a Safeway.

Frequent Flyer
The whiteness of the walls closed in on her like an MTV music video in slow motion. Her emotions warped with every step she took toward the brown door at the end. Halfway down the hall, she was clear of anger and bitterness. A throbbing took control of her chest, and it tightened.

Paranoia
The puffy balls of cotton, glinting in the bright sunlight beam right onto my face as I peer out. They don't betray my thudding heart when the plane shudders. What was that? I can see the wing fall away and the plane skidding out of the sky into the cloudy carpet below.

Runway Lights
Fried green tomatoes with creole-style shrimp on top. Amit had seen the movie, but this was the first time that he was tasting the stuff. That was a great start, with two of the three beautiful women close. They were friendly and intelligent.

Most Flavored
He had held her tightly, as the tears streamed down her face, right there on the Las Vegas strip, with the Eiffel Tower looking down on them. He'd held her tightly, holding her face to his, her tears burning into his emptiness. That was the last time he'd held her, but she'd already been lost to the world.

Rajat Mukherjee - The Short Story Book

2008-06-10T18:56:00.002-07:00

This is my first collection of short stories, some of which are set in India, and others in the U.S. You can read excerpts below. Better yet, read the eBook!

Leave comments here, or, if you care to, write a review.

Camping Out
He could see himself on the badminton court, gracefully meeting every shuttle with an outstretched arm and a fancy flourish of his wrist....his strokes came smoothly and he could hear the ringing of the strings on the little cork ball and the swishing sound of the birdie as it hurtled through the air...

Metamorphosis
She stared at him, but jerked her glance away every time his eyes swayed towards her. They were two Indians waiting for a Greyhound bus at a lonely little bus station, and were bound to stare at each other and try not to admit it.

The Tiger
'Has he eaten a goat or a lamb?' I bleated, while my mother tried to silence me and the rest of the bus ignored me. I was in a frenzy, looking through the dirt-covered glass window and seeing only scores of excited people.

The Wife
...The leaves of yellow and gold and brown and red and orange and crimson perched on trees in the golden sunshine with the clear blue sky above. The fall air was restful and invigorating. Proshanto and Jessica landed at Keene airport with their bags, sweating after their little twenty-seater plane had tantalizingly bounced around that blue sky.

The Turning Tides
'Please sit. Please. I drove here myself.' That sentence was well used. Karen had told him that she was afraid of driving... He turned and looked into her face with his dead expression. He could discern that she looked very haggard. Her hair had thinned and her eyes lay deep in their sockets. She looked ill.

Five Rupees
She smiled at me and placed her hand on my head and nodded her head from side to side. Maybe, in her mind, I was a child gone right, while the others were being stolen from her by circumstance and adversity. I was her child, released into the world of success and good fortune, and all we were doing in return was embellishing her gratitude and pride with a token five rupees.

The Incident at Nob Hill
He clawed at her, his fingers trying to get her to speak, his legs shaking under her. His fingers entwined her soft long hair, trying to involuntarily feel for blood. There was only mud and slime. She had beautiful hair. She had beautiful hair and she was not speaking to him.

Grandpa's Shotgun
He rose, tapped the cigarette case back into hiding in his breast pocket as a last sign of respect to the elderly, befuddled man before him, and made for the door. He turned and said, 'I will come back on Tuesday night, before load-shedding.'

Rajat Mukherjee - Table Tennis

2008-06-10T18:56:00.001-07:00

I love playing Table Tennis. Note - it is different from ping pong! I played in the finals of the 2008 Google Table Tennis tournament. Check out that game - it has an ironic (but entertaining) turn of events!

Check out these clips of us (the Google "team") playing in 2007...we ain't that bad!

Rajat Mukherjee - Soccer

2008-06-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

I love soccer. I love Brazilian soccer. Love Ronaldo, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Christiano Ronaldo,...

Played indoor soccer as part of the Verity One team for several years. That was fun and hard!

I do have a touch of soccer pedigree (by proxy) - My uncle was the captain of the Indian soccer team that came in 4th at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics (India's best performance ever in international soccer) - check out the sad story of the (lack of) recognition ...

Rajat Mukherjee - Hobbies

2008-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have, unfortunately, lots of hobbies and interests. The result - I dabble and don't really excel...

I love photography, art, music, writing (therefore reading less than I should), dramatics, movies, table tennis, soccer, bbq/grilling (not cooking in general).

I've been told that I should focus on things that I get paid to do :-) ....but that's no fun!

Rajat Mukherjee - University

2008-06-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

I spent 4 years supposedly studying Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras. Those were the best years - after topping my department in the first semester, I turned my attention to things that were more interesting than electronics :-) I was Dramatics Coordinator, Art Coordinator, Campastimes (campus magazine) Editor, Guidance Counsellor, Table Tennis team captain, and a member of several teams: Elocution, Debate, Dumb Charades, Soccer.

There's more history here :-)

Then, I went to Rice University, where I did my M.S. and Ph.D. Why? More on this later :-)

Among other things, I got involved with the Indian Students at Rice (ISAR) to help organize and perform at several India Nites (Indian Culture show), DJ the first Indian Rice Radio program - Navrang, and direct Magar Kyon (the first unsung Bollywood international movie). I played carrom with Zakir Hussain!

I also won the intra-mural Table Tennis tournament many times (no one took table tennis seriously :-)), and also won the soccer intra-mural tournament with the graduate student team (the Calzones) once.

Rajat Mukherjee: High School

2008-06-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've been lucky to have gone to a bunch of very accomplished schools all through my school life. I started at Vidya Mandir, a local public school in ITI township, where I lived (5 mins from home). It so happens that Vidya Mandir was/is one of the largest state schools in Karnataka, India. In 3rd grade, my parents decided to switch me to private school - in preparation, I joined Sophia Girls School, where my sister went. That was great, since I had to take an entrance exam for St. Joseph's Boys School, one of the best schools in Bangalore. Here's an old photo...

I was the valedictorian and ended up getting the OBA Gold Medal for topping my class in 10th grade! That was one of the best years of my life - I also did debate, dramatics, table tennis, and started soccer.

Then I went to Bishop Cottons, a major rival school, for 11 and 12 grades - that was not a common thing to do - most of my class went to Joseph's College. Needless to say, the first month was terrible - then I finally had friends. We had great students in class from various parts of the country - a lot of competition!

Rajat Mukherjee - Short Stories and more

2008-06-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

I first wrote a novel during my graduate student days called The Temple on Kasturi Road as a wedding gift to my wife. She did not consider it as good as Sidney Sheldon (because it was clearly like Steinbeck!). So I started working on some short stories with a twist ...

Camping Out.
My first collection of short stories, completed in 1995.

Buy Camping Out (eBook)

Short stories with a twist!
From India to the U.S. some things change and some things stay the same - but live in the U.S. for several years and you wear new lenses!
Go on! Sample the stories ...

Golpo.
My second collection of short stories, still in the works...

Sample Golpo

Golpo, in my native Bengali, means story. My roots have spanned Bengal, India, America ... the world! Taste some international fare ...Golpo!

The Temple on Kasturi Road.
My first novel, completed in 1991 - a wedding gift to my wife.

More about The Temple on Kasturi Road

The lives of Narayanan and Prema Pillai and their three children Usha, Mohan and Rajesh epitomize the struggles of a typical lower middle-class Indian family. Life for the Pillais proceeds at a comfortable pace until the family ....