For their 10th birthday, Google asked 10 of their top experts this question: What’s going to happen in the next ten years? How will this phenomenal technology evolve, how will we adapt, and (more importantly) how will it adapt to us?

Here are some of the predictions made:

In the next decade, around 70% of the human population will have fixed or mobile access to the Internet at increasingly high speeds, up to gigabits per second. We can reliably expect that mobile devices will become a major component of the Internet, as will appliances and sensors of all kinds. Many of the things on the Internet, whether mobile or fixed, will know where they are, both geographically and logically. As you enter a hotel room, your mobile will be told its precise location including room number. When you turn your laptop on, it will learn this information as well–either from the mobile or from the room itself. It will be normal for devices, when activated, to discover what other devices are in the neighborhood, so your mobile will discover that it has a high resolution display available in what was once called a television set. If you wish, your mobile will remember where you have been and will keep track of RFID-labeled objects such as your briefcase, car keys and glasses. “Where are my glasses?” you will ask. “You were last within RFID reach of them while in the living room,” your mobile or laptop will say.

Pretty incredible, huh? For more predictions, read the whole post here.

Google is always creating and doing cool things, and their interactive timeline is no exception. Another little project created to celebrate their 10 year anniversary, the timeline tracks company milestones, products released, definitions of Google terms, statistics, and the development of Google “culture.” Especially fascinating are the year end looks at Google search trends. Who knew pokemon was so popular in 1999?

Photo citation: Its Future is in our Hands, uploaded on July 8, 2007 by aussiegall.