If you believe that where there's smoke, there's fire, then there could be something to the rumors of a Skype-Yahoo marriage. Engadget - supported by Andy Abramson - has a posting the two companies are getting pretty cozy. It would be an interesting union because it would give Yahoo a popular voice application for its Yahoo! Messenger platform. Skype's investors, which include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, would likely see a huge return as would Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom, who made little money from his last gig, Kazaa. If Yahoo buys Skype, I would be somewhat surprised given Skype is just starting to gain momentum in terms of revenue from premium services such as SkypeIn and SkypeOut. Why sell out now when it's just beginning to get fun? Skype and Zennstrom are also still revelling in their status as a telecom rebel, even though issues such as 911 are bringing Skype into the fold. Still, money talks and Yahoo has lots of it to make strategic deals. Do not be surprised, however, if Skype's 30+ million users attracts rival bids from players such as Google or Microsoft.

The shocking departures today of Nortel president and COO Gary Daichendt and CTO Gary Kunis are, quite simply, an unmitigated disaster. For these guys to walk after less than three months on the job is bizarre beyond comprehension. Daichendt and Kunis were supposed to be part of the solution; they were going to be a key part of Nortel's return to respectability after an embarassing accounting scandal. What went wrong is anyone's guess but I've rarely seen anything so outrageous in the 10 years I've covered the high-tech/telecom industry. Personally, I think Daichendt and Kunis joined Nortel based on the idea they had the ability to re-invent a company whose technology portfolio - other than GSM - is not allowing it to compete in the high-growth markets. When they presented their restructuring plan to the board, it was rejected as too radical. If you're the Nortel board, your options now are: stay the course, which seems unpalatable despite CEO Bill Owens' optimism, or start the deal-making process by selling some units and/or making some strategic acquisitions.
Sadly, Nortel has become a bad soap opera. Perhaps all news coverage should begin with "As the Nortel Turns". Nortel, by the way, is not granting interviews or holding a conference call with analysts today. So much for all the talk about coporate transparency.

In rambling through the blogosphere this morning, I ran into a posting on Traffick.com that cryptically suggested "Mark Evans, quite possibly, is the Ben Mulroney of Canadian tech reporting." I hope it's a compliment given the son of former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney has achieved a level of notoriety for hosting Canadian Idol...but you never know.

In the past month or so, I've been trying to make Google and Technorati my one-two punch for search on the Web. I use Google for broad searches and Technorati for what's going on in the blogosphere. While Google provides excellent results, Technorati can be hit and miss. Sometimes the search results are bang on, sometimes they miss the mark. That said, Technorati is a work in progress. You can see how it's trying to move ahead with a new new beta site. The main thrust is making the service more consumer friendly. The beta site has - for lack of a better term - been dumbed down. Gone is the clean, simple look that Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves are using. This has been replaced with a cartoon image of a hipster on soapbox and easy-to-see highlights of what's available. It's a step in the right direction if Technorati wants to expand its audience into the mainstream. The key, however, to the company's success will be the power of its search results. If the results are effective, people will use the site. This, in turn, could help Technorati's business model, which leans heavily on the AdSense paid-search service.