HTML Phive

March 24, 2011 5:08 AM

Think Quarterly a new online magazine by Google UK.

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.

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.

Our first issue is dedicated to Data – amongst a morass of information, how can you find the magic metrics that will help transform your business? We hope that you find inspiration, insights, and more, in Think Quarterly.

posted by blue_beetle (10 comments total)

It seems like a lot of bizwank, but very pretentious bizwank.

Tony Fagan, Director of Research at Google, answers the six quant questions every CMO should be asking in order to maximise their return on search advertising.

Nice layout though.
posted by delmoi at 5:19 AM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

You'd gone and read the whole damn thing and evaluated it in under eleven minutes. Impressive.
posted by ardgedee at 5:37 AM on March 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

Half of me wants to keep watching this to see where it goes, the other half reminds me of every "social media expert"* who has tried to talk themselves up to me at a party.

Talking yourself up at a party as a social media expert is the modern equivalent of strumming a guitar while everyone is trying to talk.

That said, the language on this site is so wonderfully intimidating to anyone who doesn't understand the internet. The third half of me wants to proclaim myself as a social media expert, send links from this site to companies, tell them I can fix all their woes, sit in their offices on an hourly rate and bombard them with new online opportunities that they can harass their middle management with until they finally fire me and I find a new rube.

*Read: halfwit
posted by gronkpan at 5:42 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

In any event, calling it pretentious is reaching for an easy trigger word. It doesn't read or appear all that differently from other lifestyle-and-information magazines, and I can appreciate a less urgent, more verbose writing style when I'm reading to kill time. Ultimately, it looks very nice though I don't think I'm the target market.

If it gets some better-informed technical punditry (Peter Rosling! Hal Varian!) into the faces of businesspeople who would otherwise know everything about how technical things work from SEO consultants, Wall Street Journal op-eds, and word of mouth on Facebook, it'll be a job well done.
posted by ardgedee at 5:53 AM on March 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

There are some great data sites linked in The Knowledge section, which made the browsing worthwhile on its own.
posted by Jakey at 7:46 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

If it gets some better-informed technical punditry (Peter Rosling! Hal Varian!) into the faces of businesspeople who would otherwise know everything about how technical things work from SEO consultants, Wall Street Journal op-eds, and word of mouth on Facebook, it'll be a job well done.

QMFT!

...but it won't, because it can't. Those same halfwits will just use it as referential ammunition, same as they do with everything else, and the bizfolk will lap it up, same as they do with everything else.
posted by aramaic at 9:23 AM on March 24, 2011

pretentious bizwank

At least it's pretty.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:29 AM on March 24, 2011

Reading this I learned something new and unexpected: There is a sharing button for Google Buzz. I'd never seen one of those before.
posted by ftrain at 10:15 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Thinking quarterly caused the financial crisis.

I'm just sayin'...
posted by chavenet at 10:53 AM on March 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Q: amongst a morass of information, how can you find the magic metrics that will help transform your business?

A: Metafilter
posted by chavenet at 10:54 AM on March 24, 2011 [3 favorites]