14 DAY TRIAL // Google may not be getting into the content creation business any time soon, but it is debuting its first online magazine, dubbed Think Quarterly. As the name implies, it's a quarterly online publication.
It's a hybrid in fact, part website part magazine app. The presentation is great and it features articles both from people at Google, professional journalists as well as guest pieces and interviews.
"At Google, we often think that speed is the forgotten 'killer application' – the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest. We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service," Matt Brittin, Managing Director, UK & Ireland Operations at Google, explained.
"But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It's a place to take time out and consider what's happening and why it matters," he continued.
The first issues deals with what Google arguably know best - data - from how data can help a business, to the data overdose we're faced with each day.
The subjects as well as the presentation and design are quintessentially Google. Everything is done with simple and elegant elements, the emphasis being on rich infographics and beautiful illustrations.
Probably the most interesting thing, from a technical point of view, is that Think Quarterly aims to appease to everyone. On the one hand, it's a website and all the articles can be read and browsed just like you'd expect from a modern site. This means that it's easy to flip thorough the articles on your computer.
However, there is an alternative magazine view, based on Flash, which reuses the content and displays it in a traditional magazine fashion. This looks and works great if you want to delve into it without any distractions of if you're reading from a tablet, as long as it's not an iPad. Google says that a PDF version is coming as well.