What OS and broadband connection do you have?

Sorry to break it to you all... Bitcoin's popularity is only due to the lyrics of some obscure Norwegian song. Check it out... the search results correlate almost exactly. 

http://www.google.com/trends/correlate/search?e=id%3ATSqR2MibDMZ&t=weekly&p=no

Jokes... but that's a pretty nifty tool... maybe one day it will be able to spot finer correlations :-)

I've found some other interesting links about using search data to predict prices:
http://crypt.la/2014/06/06/search-engine-queries-can-predict-bitcoin-prices/ (http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.0268)
https://www.kimonolabs.com/bitcoin/correlator (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/20xffg/bitcoin_correlator_see_how_price_of_bitcoin/)

Unless you're going to upgrade your rig for gaming, rather spend the money on buying some coin directly. Even if you have free power, it's almost impossible to mine anything of value... with the exception perhaps of Vertcoin or other ASIC-proof coins.

With each new coin launch, exploiters gets another testing ground. How many coins have been 51%ed or DoSed on launch? Not waiting for confirmations is not security, it's a huge liability. Hence my second criteria: Democratisation... or perhaps better put - better decentralisation.

Imagine a "pay" button on Whatsapp or Facebook chat. The problem with cryptos is usability. Whoever spoonfeeds it to the masses will dominate for a long time to come. This is the sole reason I own Facebook stock... if they partner with a payment system, they will dominate.

I see tomorrows wallets being more like today's exchanges. And today's exchanges might become super-exchanges...

NXT - or one of it's descendants.
Vertcoin
Blackcoin
Litecoin
Bitcoin

Seriously, PoS is where it's at. PoS and utility ie. fast transactions. And fairness or democratisation ie. ASIC Proof.

Yet, I don't  think the ultimate coin has been developed yet.