This one comes from Marissa Mayer, director of Google’s consumer web products, at the tail end of a somewhat defensive response about the quality of Google beta offerings, in a New York Times story [reg required]:
“Moreover, she said, Google users have come to expect the unexpected.
‘There is more creativity involved in our process here,’ she said. ‘And isn’t that more fun and more interesting? We respond not only to competitive pressures but also to internal ideas.’ ”
So is Marissa saying that the notion of generating ideas internal to a company is _unique_ to Google? Wow. Talk about your business-process patent opportunities…
Actually, Marissa, it’s possible that you see more internal idea-generation at your own company than at other companies because of the very definition of ‘internal’. In other words, when Google people have company-internal ideas they run them by you; when your competitors have them, they don’t. As a result, you might be missing some of the latter.
But please, don’t stop thinking the way you’re thinking — we like it … 🙂
Tim Converse 
My favorite line from that article comes from Danny Sullivan:
*”Yahoo says, ‘Where is the mountain? Let’s climb it,’ ” Mr. Sullivan said. “Google says, ‘Maybe we want to go up the mountain and maybe we want to go surfing.’ “*
_Triple Yahtzee!!_