I spent some time over the weekend reading Inside the Googleplex in this week's Economist. It gives a fascinating insight into the workings of and issues facing the 21st century's commercial giant. In the editorial, the conclusion is:

'One obvious strategy is to allay concerns over Google's trustworthiness by becoming more transparent and opening up more of its processes and plans to scrutiny. But it also needs a deeper change of heart. Pretending that, just because your founders are nice young men and you give away lots of services, society has no right to question your motives no longer seems sensible. Google is a capitalist tool —and a useful one. Better, surely, to face the coming storm on that foundation, than on a trite slogan that could be your undoing.'

I could not agree more.

Having digested the Google stuff I then moved through the rest of the issue and realised (for the umpteenth time) that this magazine must be the best weekly print publication in the world for the general reader and we all know that Nature is clearly the best for the scientific reader. Both these magazines have British roots but both have adapted to become genuinely global. I suspect they do more for British prestige around the world than almost anything else, including hugely expensive prime ministerial visits. Hooray for British journalistic standards.

And now the Economist Group is launching a new quarterly sister magazine called Intelligent Life. You can find out more about it here. If it's as good as its sibling, it will surely be a huge success.