Career Center: Top career trends
2. Online search will mushroom. Companies involved in search—Microsoft's MSN division, Yahoo! and, of course, Google enjoy reputations as premier employers that undertake important (and cool) projects. Not surprisingly, some of the world's most capable people are applying for jobs at these companies—for most openings, they receive hundreds of strong applications. As Google strengthens its leadership position, I predict that book publishers—with authors' permission—will decide to allow Google to index all of their books. That would allow Google users to read book excerpts of up to a page or two no charge, with additional amounts requiring a fee to be split among Google, the bookseller, the author, and the publisher, just as in traditional book sales.
How to get ahead: Google, Yahoo! and MSN are great companies to work for—if you can get in. They most often hire software developers, but like other companies, they also employ accountants, human-resources people, marketers, and so on. Another implication of the boom in search is that demand will increase for information brokers—self-employed people who are masters at using search engines and other resources to unearth needed information for clients.