Readers may be interested in a post over on Tertiary Blogging: See the Googleplex and Die.

Here’s a taster:

“And so, back to the Googleplex. Google has created a new way of working that’s midway between employment and freelance. Twenty percent of staff are millionaires. Each is allowed 20 percent of the working week on researching personal projects. Everything onsite is free. It’s more like a club than a factory. Above all it’s innovation-led. And just a little crazy.”

So, what will Larry Page announce at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later today? MarketWatch claims to have information from a significant contact, who prefers to remain anonymous.

Maybe the Googlers are fearing a damp squib like the much-trailed announcement of an alliance with Sun Microsystems. Here’s what Anon had to say:

“Google will sell video content provided by CBS and become the latest technology giant to expand into the burgeoning market for online media, according to a person familiar with the matter. Google will provide the content on its Web site at a price comparable to what Apple Computer Inc is charging for videos from Walt Disney Co sold through iTunes, said the person, who requested anonymity.”

The Wall Street Journal believes that Page will also unveil “Google Pack”, Internet-related software products made by Google and partners including, Symantec, Adobe Systems and RealNetworks.

These predictions are in line with speculation from such luminaries as Robert X Cringely, Om Malik, and others.

Google shares rose again to $448 as I write. Speculation that they will hit the $600 mark in 2006 is rife. But not everyone agrees.

Time to sell, says Robert Walberg of MSN’s MoneyCentral : “Google is in the early stages of monetizing a number of its assets ~ including Gmail and Froogle — and it may continue to surprise analysts with one brilliant quarter after another. But to base a $600 price target on an 2007 earnings multiple that is higher than the multiple investors were paying for 2006 earnings is to ask investors to suspend reality.”

Larry Page’s address to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas tomorrow could influence the share price. Rumors of a $200 PC, running a Google operating system, have reinforced the share bubble. But other voices are cautioning that a video box, taking a mashup of content from PCs is more likely.

There’s a wodge of rumours going around that Google will announce a new PC, in a joint venture with Walmart, at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Will it be anything like the assumed JV with Sun Microsystems on a Web-based Google Office suite mooted not so long ago, we wonder? Chances are, it will.

Co-founder of Google, Larry Page, is slated to speak 4 pm on Friday at the Las Vegas Hilton. The company has not so far announced his topic or agenda.

It seems unlikely that Google will go mano a mano with Microsoft when they have no need to do so. Their aim must be to use hardware as a means of drawing in more customers for their services, nothing more. Taking on notoriously grumpy Microsoft in a battle of attrition that only Redmond can win would not be clever. And Google is nothing if not clever.

Bill St. Arnaud, Internet analyst and senior director of advanced networks at Canarie says, “In time, with Web services, more applications will move to the network from the desktop. But I think Google has got to first get these applications developed and solve the bottleneck in the last mile rather than competing with Microsoft on the OS.” [Source: LightReading].

Wise words. But there’s no telling what paths the human ego may aspire to travel down.

Stay tuned for the outcome.