Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) CEO Jerry Yang gave a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week that highlighted some of the company's past while plowing into what it needs to do in the future. Yes, competitor Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has eaten its breakfast in internet search. Yahoo!, though, still draws more web visitors. Why can't it turn that traffic into consistently growing profit?

That is the question that's been around for more than a year now. Yang said last week that "I'm sorry to disappoint you. It's still the same old face. I've been around since the beginning." What Yang did show the audience besides quoting the obvious was a powerful new version of Yahoo!'s email service that was more like a communications hub than plain old email service. Yang also officially rolled out a commitment for Yahoo! to integrate more third-party sites to its network as well as let outsiders develop services that can be offered to Yahoo!'s market-leading audience.

Unfortunately, Yahoo!'s window of opportunity is limited to 2008. If it rolls out some truly unique services and is successful at getting its gargantuan web audience to use them -- and find a way to become more profitable with these services -- Yahoo! could be on track to a recovery in the wake of Google's runaway success. But, Google is not slowing down either and can be counted on to have just as much innovation as Yahoo! this year based on what has transpired in Mountain View in the last 18 months. Yahoo! has talked the talk. Now, let it walk the walk. If it fails, it will become the one of the single largest missed opportunities in the short history of the internet.