Courting the Web Giants

Google and Yahoo Draw Gadget Makers' Attention at Tech Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has 2,500 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees, making for bustling crowds. (By Walt Stoneburner For The Washington Post)

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6 -- The International Consumer Electronics Show's newest and newsiest attendees, Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., are creating huge gravitational pull for a host of software and handset makers that view these companies as changing how consumers access various forms of media.

Yahoo and Google -- both attending the huge trade show for the first time -- take up a relatively small part of the 1.6 million square feet of exhibition space. And with 2,500 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees from around the world, it's hard to find a spot to make an audible phone call, much less land a successful sales pitch.

While Yahoo has a sizable tent in the parking lot outside the massive convention center, Google's modest booth is overwhelmed by a noisy, flashing thicket of gadget makers hawking wares.

Yet Yahoo, Google and the Internet services they represent cast the underlying theme of the show, which is making it easier for consumers to access the kind of media they want, when they want it.

Both companies are introducing services to deliver television programming to computers and cell phones, highlighting a tying together of services and devices that has companies such as Intel Corp., Nokia Corp., Cingular Wireless LLC and media giants lining up for partnership deals to make sure they're part of that revolution.

Yahoo's chief executive, Terry S. Semel, and Google co-founder Larry Page gave their inaugural speeces to packed houses, flanked by Hollywood celebrities to deliver highly anticipated and widely speculated-about announcements.

Semel announced a line of software that will make it possible to access all of Yahoo's e-mail, photo, search and other applications from a television or a cell phone. That, in turn, has other software makers, device designers and cell phone companies lining up to make sure they aren't left out.

Page announced the Google Video Store, an online warehouse of free or for-pay videos that it hopes will become a comprehensive library of media including home videos, hit shows and professional sports games. It has forged partnerships with CBS, the National Basketball Association, Sony BMG Music and others. Hit shows including "CSI," "Amazing Race" and "NCIS," as well as basketball games, will be available for $1.99 an episode or more.

Page was joined by comedian Robin Williams for much of the speech, including a question-and-answer session, where Page criticized the industry for its battle over competing formats, saying that it forces customers to choose between devices and services that aren't widely compatible.

"I think we really do need standards," Page said. "Let's get these devices talking to one another. I think we'd be amazed at the innovation."

The Google and Yahoo presence makes perfect sense to a company such as Intel, which is using partnerships with such Internet powers to build its new Viiv product, a processor and system designed to marry the computer and the television. The Viiv concept depends on consumers embracing Internet content so computers can process video and home entertainment as instantly as a television, and Yahoo is one of Intel's primary partners.

"We want this to be an entertainment device," Intel consumer PC marketing manager Merlin Kister said. And to do that, the company has to partner with Internet players such as Yahoo and America Online Inc., he said.

"Digital convergence [among the Internet, television, and phone] has been talked about for some time, but you needed more than just devices" to make it work, said Marco Boerries, Yahoo's senior vice president for connected life. Yahoo, with 450 million users of its e-mail, music, photos and other services, commands the audience that consumer electronics makers are trying to tap, he said.

"There's no question about it: I think that you're seeing more and more partnerships between content providers, device makers, infrastructure providers like wireless companies, all converging to maximize the experience of the user," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Cingular, which is a carrier for the new Nokia phones that come with the new Yahoo Go Mobile service.

Creative Labs Inc., which this week announced a service called Zencast to aggregate audio and video content for consumers to use on all their devices, is partnering with Yahoo's music store. The maker of Zen music players relies on such Internet content kings to make its devices indispensable to consumers. "This is my sixth [CES], and every year, they always talk about 'convergence,' but it is getting to a point where it's a reality now," Creative spokeswoman Lara B. Vacante said.

Google, which recently improved its ability to deliver maps and e-mail to cellular phones, is being embraced by companies such as Motorola Inc., which announced it would start selling phones with one-click buttons for easy access to the search engine's site.

Google also partnered with other software providers, including Norton Anti-Virus, Mozilla Firefox and RealPlayer to offer a standard package, or "Google Pack" of software easily and quickly downloaded for free. That software, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer said, will make it easier to access the Internet and various applications.

Gary Shapiro, head of the conference-sponsoring Consumer Electronics Association, introduced Semel today by asking, "What is the head of Yahoo doing speaking at CES?" Semel answered the question, saying his company and others like it need to form closer alliances with the gadget makers of the world.

"Yahoo does not aspire to make gadgets," Semel said. "Our aim is to partner with you."