Yesterday, Burlington Mass based Nuance Communications was rumored to have been acquired by Apple. The story spread like wildfire through the internet world; all major publications had their own opinions and were abuzz with commentary about the potential acquisition.

As we wrote yesterday, the story stemmed from an interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, where he mistakenly mentioned Nuance as being acquired by Apple. When the news comes straight from Wozniak, it doesn’t take long for the masses to catch on.

Check out the image below of Nuance’s (NUAN) stock price over the last two days:

Within minutes of the tech world catching this news it had reached the floor of the stock exchange and the price immediately jumped to its 52 week high. The most interesting part of this image is the extreme surge in trade volume.

This isn’t the first time bloggers have skewed stock prices based on false rumors, and certainly won’t be the last. Back in 2007, Engadget published a story stating the release of the iPhone and Leopard operating system would be seriously delayed. In minutes, Apple’s stock price dropped knocking $4 Billion of the company’s market cap. The story ended up being a hoax and there was no delay, but it sure shows the power of bloggers and the viral distribution.

Do you think the internet and bloggers will abuse this power? Can the SEC do anything to prevent this from happening?