Microsoft made headlines this week by buying internet business Skype for $8.5 billion. While some may argue that this is just another thing for them to add to their portfolio that will not grow, I would argue that this is a smart move by Microsoft.

They made a smart move in allowing the company to grow to a large size before acquiring it; there is already a large customer base, almost everyone knows about it even if they do not use it, and it has a good reputation among the technology community.

It was also a good situation for the group of investors, including Ebay, who had partial ownership of shares in the company. While these investors have deep pockets, none have the software expertise of Microsoft that has the potential to grow this newest addition to the family into the giant it could be.

Read the whole story here.

Ever wish you could pick your own price for your clothes? Shadoodle lets you do just that.

The process is simple and fun. After you log in, you are asked a series of questions about the shirt you want to design and purchase. You can choose the style of the shirt and what designs, names, or numbers are to be put on the front and back. Next, you are asked to say how many shirts you will be purchasing.

Once all of this information has been entered, you can enter in the amount you want to pay per shirt. The site will immediately respond with a witty answer to inform you if the price is reasonable or too low. Once you have negotiated a price, you move on the order your shirts with the exact specifications you want.

Shadoodle makes designing and ordering T-shirts for all occasions easy, fun, and more affordable. Bargain for your shirt at Shadoodle.com.

Hulu has revolutionized the way we watch television. No longer do we have to sit down at the time a show is playing to watch or suffer through long commercial breaks at critical times in the plot of the program. Hulu allows anyone to watch their favorite programs online, anytime, for free.

They are able to do this legally by purchasing rights to the show from the network it runs on. They pay for these rights by having a few commercials. Commercials on Hulu will run about 3 times, for 2 minutes each time, during an hour long program. (Which is really only 40 minutes, once the commercials are taken out.)

While there are so many less commercials, Hulu is able to make a profit because of the number of people who will watch a show now that they can do it anytime and from any location with an internet connection. They also make money from their Hulu Plus subscriptions, which allow the user to watch a greater variety of shows, more seasons of popular shows, and everything commercial free.

Using the combined revenue streams, Hulu was thought to have made $250 million in 2010 according to Business Insider.

Watch your favorite show at hulu.com

WorkFlowy is a new site that helps people organize their hectic lives into one easy place. You can take notes, keep track of projects, and even keep a journal all in one easy to find online space.

While this project is still a beta tester, it is fully functional and very practical. Once you create a user name and password, you are presented with what looks like a blank piece of paper. On that paper you can create lists of all the broad things that you need to do or think about. At the start of each item on the list there will be a bullet point. Clicking on this bullet point hides all of the other information on the list and lets you add to just that point. This process can be repeated until you have a very specific section that you are working. You can return to any of the broader categories on your list at any time.

Create your own profile and keep your life organized at workflowy.com

Coming up with new ideas by yourself is hard. Coming up with new ideas that people like is even harder. It takes time, research, and lots and lots of money. Solution: let the general population do it for you. Crowdsourcing is the hottest new thing in marketing. It lets potentially millions of people give you their input on the latest trends and innovative ideas. It also builds excitement around your product and business. As an extra bonus, the only thing you have to pay for is any prizes awarded to the best ideas, if you choose to award prizes at all.

Many business have opted for crowdsourcing as a way to get the best possible product. Wrangler has a contest to design the best new blue jeans. Brisk crowdsources the designs for their limited edition cans. Even the US army has taken advantage of this unique strategy by introducing a contest to design the best combat support vehicle.

In an age where people want to share their opinion on anything and everything on the internet, crowdsourcing is an inexpensive and easy way to tap into the potential of the masses.