Who says the internet, and particularly blogging, has to be a one way medium? There’s always been commenting, but Viddler has raised the bar. The video-streaming company has developed a WordPress plug-in that allows blog readers to comment by video. You can see a sample post on their website. This looks promising, but seriously, who wants to make sure their hair is just right before commenting?

Looks like the two-headed monster won’t be created after all. The Wall Street Journal reports that Yahoo will be rejecting Microsoft’s offer of a mega-merger on Monday. Yahoo believes that any offer less than $40/share is undervaluing its worth. Well, Microsoft, the good thing is that that’s $44.6 billion for you to keep. You know, in case, you ever feel like buying another mega-company.

Microsoft announced today that it is offering to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion cash + stock. This is an incredibly big move and an interesting one because Yahoo essentially replicates a lot of Microsoft’s Live platform. It’s definitely going to be a change in the search and online advertising market. Welcome to the era of the two-headed monster (if the deal goes through).

Microsoft interested in Yahoo! [Reuters]

OpenDNS has positioned servers at strategic Internet crossroads that allows them to be retrieve your site more quickly than just about any standard ISP’s DNS server. A very large DNS cache also helps grease the tubes. The bottom line is that I got my Internet connection to go faster than it ever has before, with just a few easy setup steps. In addition to just speed, OpenDNS also provides quite a few other useful features such as:

• Phishing Protection, in case you fall for that spammy looking e-mail. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us.
• Domain Blocking, including a special Adult Site Blocking feature (useful to the parents out there!)
• Usage statistics, to help you figure out just how bad your Internet addiction is.
• Typo correction. For example: google.cmo automatically gets redirected to google.com

You can find out how to best use all the great features from another fantastic MakeUseOf article. So far, this product has been seriously impressive for me. Share how well it works for you below!

The internet today has further crossed the debatable line into too much information: Domino’s is rolling out a new tracking system to 3,400 outlets, allowing customers to track their pizza delivery’s - accurate to within 40 seconds. The person who takes your order’s first name will also be available online, presumably to motivate them to work more efficiently. To make matters even worse, the tracking website makes you promise to “agree to use the Domino’s Pizza Tracker to only track your own Domino’s Pizza orders.”

Now, some of you might be wondering how that’s worse. And the answer is that it means that it may be possible to track other people’s orders using the same service. With privacy concerns these days, a flaw like that could very well blow up in Domino’s face. Is this another case of not showing enough concern about security over supposedly “private” information, or just another useful aspect of the internet?

[USAToday via Consumerist]

Google has been shaking things up these past few weeks, tweaking the interfaces and functionality of almost all their current services. The most recent has been the five experimental features they’ve been trying out, aimed at improving your “search experience”. The features are: Alternate view for search results, Keyword suggestions, Keyboard shortcuts, Left-hand search navigation, and Right-hand contextual search navigation. Users are currently restricted to opting into only one of the five, so you need to know which you prefer the most. Unfortunately, the little five line description on Google’s page probably won’t give you any deep insights into the new mechanisms. Enter ArsTechnica’s in-depth tour of all changes made by each one, and how they might affect you.

I’m liking all of them, although Alternate Views has quickly become the personal favorite. It seems breathe some fresh air into Google’s somewhat stale list of results. Google’s simplistic result page might be what made them popular in the first place, but it can get kind of boring sometimes and may be overdue for an (optional) overhaul. In the meantime, let us know: which one do you like best and why?

The new Beta will finally include the much anticipated default Windows XP theme, although there is no word right now on the Vista theme. However, more exciting than that is the new feature which is in place in Beta 3: you can now search for new extensions through Firefox’s Add-On manager, without actually firing up the Mozilla Add-ons website. It (currently, at least) only shows a few hits for your search, with a link that points you to the extensions site to complete your quest.

Get the latest Firefox nightly build [via Cybernet]

Gadget Lab’s Rob Beschizza has created a short parody of the Macbook Air, showcasing a product that features the biggest attraction of the Air without its largest problem. [Youtube via Gizmodo]

According to a study that was recently published in the journal Psychological Science, the human brain has a hardwired limit to the number of things it can concentrate on at once. According to the findings of the team of researchers, led by psychology professors Edward Awh and Edward Vogel at the University of Oregon , that limit is four for most individuals.

Of course, one the operative words in the previous sentence is “most”. The study states: “People with high IQs can think about more things at once.” The study also found that the limit is affected by the complexity of the tasks being accomplished.

Many people are pointing to this study as proof that people who multitask are not doing a good job on any of their tasks. However, I have to ask: how many people are trying to accomplish more than four tasks at a time? To me, this study seems like evidence to support the claim of multitaskers, that multitasking can make you more efficient - to a point.

Humans can only think of four things at once [InformationWeek]

Best results will probably be achieved with a 2GB or bigger flashdrive. And, as always, try at your own risk.

Make your desktop portable

The good folks over at the xda-developers forum have posted a pre-release ROM that unlocks the in-built GPS and EVDO Rev A features of the Sprint Mogule, or any HTC 6800 device (which includes the Sprint Mogul, the Verizon XV6800 and the Alltell PPC6800). While EVDO Rev A has been promised since before the release of the Mogul, the GPS was a nice little add-on promised by Sprint after the fiasco the last ROM update caused. As always with pre-release stuff, install at your own risk.

Skyfire: change your mobile browsing experience [Infoworld]

Two graphics cards in your notebook [via ArsGeek]

Shareaholic gives you access to all the community sharing sites that you want without having to install twenty different toolbars (and their associated clutter). A really neat feature is the ability to add or remove those sites that you would or would not use. The add-on currently supports del.icio.us, digg, facebook, FriendFeed, Google Bookmarks, ma.gnolia, Mixx, reddit, simpy, StumbleUpon, Truemors, tumblr. and Twitter. It seems to be kept up-to-date, so if you don’t see something you want you can probably submit feedback to the developer.

[via gHacks]

Paul Coelho is the best selling author of The Alchemist amongst other books. He also firmly believes in giving away his work for free, going to the extent of creating what he calls an unofficial website for fans called Pirate Coelho, where fans download various translations of The Alchemist. Coelho proved, through his own experience, that once he made the book available for free, it actually sold more copies. In a talk he gave, he mentions that the Russian translation had sold 1,000 copies before it was made available for free and 100,000 copies in the two years afterwards. Just goes to show, the free business model can work.

[via Techdirt]

Innovation is the key that drives this crazy industry of ours, so it’s only fair to honor those who are innovative. PC World has compiled a list of the 25 Most Innovative Products in 2007, and it gives a good overview of some of the advances made over the past year. To this humble blogger, the most important ones are the ones that aren’t just one-off products, but rather the ones that drive a whole field of innovation. Cherry-picking a few off the list:

• Amazon Kindle
  This product is great because it has the potential to bring e-book reading to the mainstream. While there have been other e-readers in the past, Amazon’s unique combination of service, via WhisperNet, and huge digital library serve to drive the Kindle to the next level (remind anyone of iPod + iTunes?). Once it becomes a little more cost effective, expect this market to really start flourishing.
• Apple iPhone
  Apple’s genius combination of great execution and pervasive advertising has struck gold again. While the idea is not new - after all, heavyweights such as Palm, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and the RIM Blackberry have been in place for years - Apple has served to bump up the stakes and bring this former niche market into the mainstream. Now, everybody wants to be able to be able to check their e-mail and watch YouTube on the go - not just business power users or early adopters. Despite being the new kid on the block, the iPhone has already snatched 27% market share and surged ahead of Windows Mobile. Look for this market to expand much faster in the coming year - especially with Google’s Android around the corner.
• Facebook API
  Facebook API has allowed users to get a more customized feel to their Facebook experience - always a good way to expand a social networking venture. While some claimed that this opened the door to the corruption of the previously clean Facebook interface, the popularity of the new gadgets is undeniable. Even hardcore Facebook purists will at least have an app like SuperPoke. The customization has also attracted MySpace users in droves and helped push ahead the already budding social network widget industry. Just ask Slide.

What are your favorites?

Thanks to some nifty IE add-ons (who said Firefox was the only extensible browser?), you can do things like on-the-fly spell checking and re-open your last closed tab. A lot of these features come built-in with Firefox, but it’s nice to know that IE really has the good stuff, too. That corporate mandated browser rule may not be so bad after all…

Seven cool IE 7 add-ons [via Lifehacker]

EDIT: Found one more that’s not in the Wired article: IE7Pro is supposed to be awesome. Let us know which one you like best below!

Torrent search sites are always in a precarious situation. With even a modicum of success, the RIAA starts sending them nice letters hate mail - for proof of the fact, just check out the Pirate Bay’s collection. Sadly, hate mail isn’t the end of it. The fact of the matter is that there is tons of good, legal content (Linux distributions, World of Warcraft patches) along with the illegal on BitTorrent and it’s excellent P2P service means that there won’t be a shortage of sites supporting it. Meet the latest contender: YouTorrent.

YouTorrent provides a nice, clean interface that finds results based on indexing of other sites. It hits most of the major engines like Mininova and the aforementioned Pirate Bay. The great part is that it’s results are organized by number of seeds/peers which ensures that the top hit will be the best bet for a quick download. Apparently, it’s been getting pretty popular. So, if you use BitTorrent to help you get your (hopefully legal) downloads, give it a shot while you still can!

[via TechCrunch]

Information technology is credited with revolutionizing the world in the past 30-odd years. However, as with every great success story, the carcasses of the failed lie on the side of the path to glory. Ever wonder what the biggest failures have been over the years? Infoworld has put together a great list of the biggest duds the tech industry has produced. This includes everything from failed products like Intel’s Itanium processor to terrible executives (that means you, Carly Fiorina). Perhaps Microsoft ought to read this list and get some idea of what it’s doing wrong (hint: stop pushing Passport and fix Vista).

The biggest flops in the tech industry…ever [Infoworld]

Open source analyst  Matt Asay has compiled a list of the top stories to hit this year. It contains an analysis of the most interesting and impactful changes in the industry over the past year. Definitely worth a look. Hey, if you can’t watch the game, it’s nice to get the play-by-play.

Open source happenings in ‘07 [CNET]

How does this benefit us, you ask? Besides hopefully having the tendency to you know, not explode, these batteries would have the additional benefit of doubling battery life and having an insanely fast 10 minute charge time. According to recent surveys, short battery life is one of the main reasons customers don’t buy PMPs. This should hardly be surprising, considering just about anybody who’s tried watching videos on their Axim or Zen has had to power-off half way through a movie.
One very promising thing about this technology is Angstorm says it has already been using its new battery for six months in a stock Motorola phone, so there may not be too long of a wait before these kind of batteries hit the mass commercial market. On the other hand though, there hasn’t been any mention of pricing so far.

Micro Fuel Cells [Information Week]

Google has previously mentioned that they want to deliver “targeted measurable television ads” and it looks like they are now getting a foot in the door of the lucrative $74 billion TV advertising market. It’s possible that Google will create a new form of advertising on YouTube targeted towards TV users; they may even use this as the launching point of their inevitable ads within YouTube videos. One thing, though, is almost certain: this move will bring Google one step closer to world market domination.

Matsushita teams up with Google [CNN]