google tv

Google's fast-growing YouTube turned 7 on Monday. The world's most popular video-sharing website has come a long way already, but there are few things that can turn YouTube into a monster moneymaker for the world's most valuable Internet company.

Last week, rumors began emerging of a planned wireless entertainment device from Google. That may sound cool, but before Google jumps headfirst into the brutally competitive and low-margin consumer electronics business, it should recall how similar moves nearly crushed Cisco.

No segment of the electronics industry better highlights the challenges of these times than the television business. With sales of standard TVs flagging, the industry is pinning its hopes to new models TVs equipped to handle Internet streaming, WiFi and more.

The motto of this year's Consumer Electronics Show: You can't be too fast, too skinny or too connected. Beginning Tuesday, anorexic HDTVs and super-skinny laptops will vie for attention with accelerated WiFi devices and TVs that smartly connect to multiple devices simultaneously.

If you're fed up with escalating cable bills, fuzzy satellite TV reception, and unresponsive customer service, Google is starting to think inside the box: The world's leading search engine may be ready to launch a broadband television service as early as next year.

Shares of Netflix are down nearly 50% year to date for a variety of reasons: The loss of its popular Starz content, the price hikes, and the infamous Qwikster debacle. But online video is still a hot market. Here's a closer look at three companies that could profit from Netflix's missteps.

Disney is considering lending some of the keys to its television kingdom to Yahoo for its Yahoo Connected TV. If Yahoo is successful in inking such a deal, it would bolster its Internet TV efforts and put on better footing to compete against rival products such as Google TV and Apple TV.

Soon, the Internet won't be the only medium to offer advertisers the ability to closely target specific types of customers. Starting in August or September, DirecTV plans to launch a new personalized advertising service for television. Can it bring the scope of TV to highly targeted ads?

Google has asked its television partners to delay the launch of Google TV while it refines the software. This means the service will miss debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

Hulu Plus, the paid version of the popular video-streaming website Hulu, just opened up the paid TV streaming service to all users at a lower-than-expected price of $7.99 a month. Hulu Plus is offering a free, weeklong trial to all users, including those watching on PlayStation 3, iPad, iPhone, or...