Ever since the infamous original Google master plan - a semi-humorous plan with upcoming Google services created by employers – was erased from the big lobby whiteboard at the Googleplex in Mountain View, fans of the ‘Big G’ have been wondering if there ever would be a sequel to it.

Well, apparently there is. Engineers from Google’s branch in Seattle put their idea of a new master plan on a couple of local busses (see photo above, more pictures).

Turns out – this is ‘advertising in motion’ and part of Google’s effort to make young web geniuses check out its job listings. Definitely a creative way to recruit new talent! We’ll see if G’s Seattle branch (funny website, btw) will make more headlines soon…

P.S. The erased original Google master plan has a great shrine on Picasa. 

Tags: google, Search

Ahh, clichés. Aren’t older people supposed to be technical ignorants and “web allergic”, while the younger guys and girls surf, chat and entertain themselves on the web 24/7? Well, apparenty that’s wrong. A new UK report (PDF version) on the habits of the “Google Generation” finds that kids born since 1993 aren’t quite the internet super-geeks they’re sometimes made out to be.

Yes, it’s true that young people are generally competent with technology, but it’s not true that students today are “expert searchers.” In fact, the report calls this “a dangerous myth.”But these are some truths about the “Google generation”, according to the report:

• They like to cut-and-paste. “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.”
• They prefer visual information over text. “But text is still important… For library interfaces, there is evidence that multimedia can quickly lose its appeal, providing short-term novelty.”
• They multitask all the time. “It is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills.”

Does that mean they don’t care about copyrights, get easily bored about lengthy investigative magazine articles and suffer from ADD big time?? Well, somehow I expected a little bit more. Good news: We, the “older people” (meaning over 30), still have some chances to compete in the digital age….

Tags: google, Internet, Search, study