Have you tried talking directly to researches with similar interests to you about potential ideas? They'll often have stuff in the back of their minds that they wouldn't want to put out as a general proposal to undergrads...
I believe he's still an undergrad, I don't know about google but here an intern can be anything from a pre university student to someone finishing a phd.
I've had other interns vary there description between doing loads and not doing anything - people aren't going to micro manage you (or manage you at all half the time...).
It was probably the same salary for the internship minus bonus's - the IBD interns here are all on 45k + 1k signing, grad is normally about 5k signing and a bonus guaranteed by HR at at least a set level.