Should the Internet be taxed? That's the question facing the Senate this week, as it debates whether it should extend a ban on state and local taxes on Internet connections.

Here's another example of how the Internet is changing the way we do business. (If we needed it.)

When Howard Dean decided whether he should forgo public funding of his presidential campaign in an effort to raise more money, he consulted the oracle that helped him surge ahead of the pack of Democratic candidates.

The Internet once had pundits declaring the end of the neighborhood bank. The speed, ease and convenience of the Web would make such offline institutions as branches, telephone calling centers and even automated teller machines a thing of the past. Or at least they'd become less important (and less costly) to banks. It would only be a matter of time before the Internet would be the channel of choice for consumers to connect with their banks.

A survey of consumers finds that online retailers are going to have many happy returns by the end of the holidays.

A former publisher of mine bristled at the thought of posting stories to the Web that readers were paying money to see in print.

Talk about a turnaround. Download service Napster was left for dead a few years ago. But with a new corporate owner and last week's relaunch, Napster seems to be anything but dead.

It's showtime. Ad:Tech's three-day conference kicked off today in midtown Manhattan. This morning's events featured a keynote by Nancy Friedman, vice president of advertising at Visa USA.