Google Makes Announcements at CES

Google Inc. is living up to its game of keeping itself in the news and in the public eye. At the Consumer Electronics Show, it upped the ante in the online video gold rush, allowing content owners to set their own prices in a bid to create a more flexible alternative to Apple Computer Inc.'s pioneering iTunes store.

Google's planned video expansion, announced Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show, already has lined up commitments to sell thousands of downloads, including recent television broadcasts of popular CBS shows and professional basketball games, as well as vintage episodes from series that went off the air decades ago. A launch date for the expansion has not been released.

Google's co-founder Larry Page, also annonced that Google is distributing a Free Software Startup Kit. This suite of programs is designed to make it easier to install and maintain basic applications that have helped turn the PC into a hub of information, entertainment and communications.