CES: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!

CES is in progress (we're not there), and the majority of the stuff that's hyped or presented there won't wind up in most consumers' hands, pockets, cars or living rooms. But some of it will, and one thing that's interesting about this year's show is that Google and Yahoo! join perennial CES keynoter Bill Gates on the podium.

Yahoo! and Google are not (yet) hardware or traditional software companies. But Yahoo! is more and more a content company and has teamed up with hardware makers such as TiVo (which many believe Yahoo! will acquire this year); and Google is more and more, well, ubiquitous—the "GooglePC" rumor (officially denied by Google) being just the latest example of Googlephobia or Googlephilia (depending on your bias).

Nevertheless, we should see some interesting developments this year in online/mobile video distribution and the further fragmentation of TV audiences.

Here's PaidContent's ongoing CES coverage and highlights. More on convergence, cross-platform and hybrid devices and IPTV at CES from SiliconBeat.

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Here's CNET's take on why Google and Yahoo! are keynoting and why they're not going into the hardware business.