Google execs head to Cuba as Cold War ice thaws

 Cuba may have one of the lowest rates of internet access in the world, but that hasn't dissuaded Google from sending over some of its leading lights.

Executives from its in-house think tank Google Ideas are on a visit to the communist island — which is in the throes of trying to normalize relations with the United States — to tour universities and meet computer science students, news portal Cubadebate said on Friday.

They include the deputy director of Google Ideas, Scott Carpenter, and Brett Perlmutter, a top Google figure who went to Cuba last June with executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

The latest visitors met students at the University of Information Science (UCI) in Havana, a technological institute and several public computer centers known as 'Youth Clubs.'

Just 3.4% of households in Cuba are connected to the internet and the government keeps tight control over the web, though it vowed last month to "put the internet at the service of all" to stimulate economic growth.