Yahoo, Google to square off at CES

Eric Auchard and Doug Young

LAS VEGAS: Yahoo Inc. CEO Terry Semel and Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page will square off on Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show with dueling keynote speeches as they race to develop Internet services that lure more users.

Yahoo's chief executive will unveil Yahoo Go, which will allow users to easily send and share digital content, such as photos, instantly with phones, media center personal computers and other devices. Google's Page will follow later in the day with news of his own.

Portable digital media and myriad devices connected to the Internet have emerged as dominant themes of the industry's biggest annual show.

Consumers now more than ever control how, when and where they want to view video or listen to music, which increasingly is carried on portable devices such as MP3 players.

At the opening keynote speech on Thursday, star power met with geek power as Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer shared the stage with actor Tom Hanks.

"Content is no longer pushed at consumers. It's pulled when they want it and how they want it," Stringer said.

As the show moves into its second official day, the long-predicted convergence of all things digital may finally be at hand as the PC industry and the electronics industry at last appear to have concluded that one doesn't have to win at the expense of the other.

Paul Otellini, the chief executive of Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, outlined in detail its new Viiv (rhymes with five) platform of chips and software, which aims to wed the strengths of the PC industry with those of the broader electronics industry.

"Viiv will completely change what you expect from home entertainment," Otellini said in his speech at CES. "We have to integrate the big screen capability, the PC capability and the Internet experience."

To that end, he announced a raft of new products and partnerships, including agreements with DirecTV Group Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit, to give consumers a broad choice of music, video, photos, games and movies, as well as with Web search leader Google.

The show is the consumer electronics industry's biggest convention in the U.S., drawing an estimated 130,000 retailers and technology enthusiasts and showcasing the latest gadgets.