A fancy print publication from the overlords at Google entices business executives with tales of the search giant's unparalleled creativity
This morning Google released its first U.S. edition of its magazine Think Quarterly. A limited number of business executives will receive a copy by snail mail. For everyone else, a free version is available online. The New York Times reports that the print edition is bound with a magnetic cover, has heat-sensitive end paper, comes fastened with a blue ribbon, and is embossed with an old-fashioned seal.
Think Quarterly is a big, glossy ad for Google, with its lead pages dominated by advertising execs, its text peppered with McKinsey-speak ("we kept iterating"), and a feature story highlighting the good work Googlers are doing around the world.
That's not to say that Think Quarterly is pure marketing puffery. Several of the essays provide genuinely thought-provoking insights into the future of the Internet and society, such as Google software engineer Amit Singhal's piece describing how search technology could be much more personalized, less limited to text, and smarter. An end-of-the-book profile trots out futurist Ray Kurzweil to provide a few nuggets of thought on the prospect of the Singularity.