Last week, OStatic noted the rumor, first reported by VentureBeat, that Microsoft intended to buy Silicon Valley semantic search engine Powerset for $100 million. Lo and behold, Microsoft and Powerset are confirming today that an acquisition agreement has been signed. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the rumored $100 million figure was in line with valuations put on Powerset based on its early financing.

Powerset’s search technology uses the open-source, cluster-based technology Hadoop, which provides fast answers to queries by using the resources of many computers. Hadoop, a project from the Apache Software Foundation, is also behind Yahoo’s search.

Natural language search got a bad rap early on in the rise of the web as players such as AskJeeves stumbled, but clustered query technology like Hadoop’s may represent a game-changer. Microsoft, of course, has been desperately trying to catch up in search, where it is a distant third to Google and Yahoo. It won’t be surprising to see large portions of Microsoft’s LiveSearch start to depend on Powerset, and in so doing, depend on open-source upstart Hadoop.

It may be a little too early for a full laundry list of technology predictions for 2008, but one forecast I’m very confident in is that multiple types of wireless technologies will transform how people use their various devices next year. By the end of 2008, we are going to see countless devices with embedded Wireless USB technology, a much faster upgrade to Bluetooth, and likely the final ratification of the next-generation 802.11n Wi-Fi standard.

Wireless USB hubs, adapters, and laptops have already appeared, of course. You can easily set up a hub-and-adapter solution for about $200, but widespread adoption of this technology will come when it’s embedded into computers, digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, printers, external hard drives and numerous other types of hardware.

Certified Wireless USB chipsets, such as Alereon’s, arrived only last summer, and a large wave of devices embedded with the technology is coming in the first quarter of 2008. In fact, if you’re in the market for a new digital camera or camcorder, you might want to postpone your purchase for a few months. Remember that Bluetooth wasn’t widely used until it became embedded in arrays of products and transparent to technology users. Lots of people who do things like use hands-free systems in cars don’t even realize they’re using Bluetooth.

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ASUS Taiwan recently confirmed plans to deliver its eagerly awaited Eee PCs to the U.S. in November, and even though the company is targeting the devices squarely at the education market, they may end up challenging the pricing model for all portable computers.

When rumors began swirling in the blogosphere a few months back about the Eee PCs, they were equated with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) systems, and were expected to sell for under $200. And much as the prices of the OLPC systems have risen to just under $200 from a previous target of $100, ASUS has said the Eee PCs will come in three different models, ranging from $299 to $399.

So ASUS didn’t hit what was purportedly its lowball price target, but still, a portable computer for under $300? In my book, that qualifies as an impulse buy. Compare that price to some of the other new miniature PCs, which Web Worker Daily rounded up recently. The much ballyhooed new Nokia n810 Internet Tablet, for example, is $479, while the OQO Model 02 starts at $1,299. Of course, those have features that the Eee PCs are unlikely to have.

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