Google CEO Eric Schmidt is just one of many names mentioned for the job, although he has denied any interest.

During his campaign, Obama pledged to appoint a chief technology officer who would oversee technology policy and adoption by the federal government. The newly created Cabinet-level post would be part of a larger plan by his administration to ensure that the country remains competitive in the 21st century as technology becomes an even more central part of everyone's lives.

Whoever accepts the post will become a high-profile voice for promoting everything from innovation (getting agencies to use the latest technology) to open government (Webcasting meetings) to spreading broadband (to bridge the digital divide).

When he takes office, Obama will be the most technologically savvy president ever, according to many in the technology industry. His use of online fundraising and social networking during his campaign, along with his penchant for carrying a BlackBerry to check his e-mail on the road, makes him someone who understands technology, they said.

Speculation that Schmidt would get the job was perhaps inevitable given his support for Obama and his success helping build Google, in Mountain View, into a global Internet powerhouse. Schmidt campaigned for Obama during the campaign and is among his 17 economic advisers, a group that is playing a key role given the president-elect's focus on the financial crisis.

"He is someone who is genuinely on top of the new technologies," said Geoffrey Bowker, executive director of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society. "If Schmidt has the time and energy to do it, obviously he would be a good choice."

But asked Friday on CNBC whether he would accept the chief technology officer job, Schmidt said, "I love working at Google, and I'm happy at Google, so the answer is no."

In any case, Schmidt in taking such a post would almost inevitably raise questions about potential conflicts of interest in response to Google's increased dealings with federal regulators, particularly over antitrust matters, Bowker said. Furthermore, Google's investors would probably not react well to Schmidt's departure and send the company's shares reeling, said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart.

Schmidt's colleague Vint Cerf, a Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist, was mentioned as another possible candidate for chief technology officer, according to many in the technology industry. Cerf, who endorsed Obama for president, is named as one of the Internet's founding fathers for co-designing some of the Web's underlying architecture while an assistant professor at Stanford University in the 1970s.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Other potential candidates include Julius Genachowski, a former executive with Internet company IAC who attended Harvard law school with Obama and is part of his transition team; John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC; and Ed Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton University.

Obama's transition team did not respond to requests for comment.

Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research, doubted that Schmidt and other prominent Internet executives would be a good fit for U.S. chief technology officer. The job, she said, requires someone versed in bureaucracy and politics to have any chance of overcoming opposition by chief information officers from various federal fiefdoms, not someone enamored with flashy new online features.

"They don't need a person who is excited about shiny new objects, but someone who is successful delivering on complex projects," she said.

E-mail Verne Kopytoff at vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle