I write a daily column about technology journalism in Australia and New Zealand for IT Journo (it’s an invitation only site). Today the dominant news story was the Australian debut of new Google Android phones from HTC. Also on the agenda was an announcement from Google about its new Wave communications software and the relaunch or rebranding of Microsoft’s search as Bing.

Judging by the local and international coverage of the stories, Microsoft should be worried. The yet to be launched Google Wave software recieved far more coverage than Microsoft’s carefully choreographed launch. Microsoft is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting its rebranded search and yet the story was lost in the noise.

As far as news media is concerned, Google is now far more important than Microsoft.

A great piece of advice at Lifehacker Australia. It says some employers worry about hiring overqualified staff. So the smart thing to do if you need a job in a hurry  is to send an honest résumé that leaves off some of your more impressive achievements.

Land Short-Term Work With A Dumbed Down Résumé | Lifehacker Australia.

Writing at Word-Pictures-Web, e-marketer Buddy Scalera says there’s a need for people who can find information quickly. He calls them search specialists. My guess is the job title will be something else, but his job description is spot on. While we’re on the subject, we should also add e-marketer to the job titles your father never knew list.

In 2009, we’ll see the evolution of the search specialist. Now, these people are already out there in niche jobs (and they’ll probably be able to find this blog posting). But coming soon, we’ll probably see head-hunters and HR departments looking for knowledge workers who can quickly and effectively mine the Net for super-specific information.

He says “Search specialists will be needle-in-a-haystack researchers who defy traditional job roles. Some of them will be research specialists or editors or scientists or journalists or work from home entrepreneurs.” That’s good news for us career journalists who are finding it increasingly hard to stay employed as newspapers and magazines continue to close.

Incidentally:

After almost 30 years’ experience as a newspaper and magazine editor I’m fussy about these things: a job title is not a proper noun and therefore shouldn’t have capitals. That also explains why I changed Buddy’s job title from eMarketer to e-marketer, the capital letter in the middle of that word is random and looks illiterate.

Help Wanted: Search Specialist
Job titles your father never knew and your kids probably won’t know

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