The initial launch of the company that evolved into vSocial was, as co-founder and CEO Mark Sigal puts it, "spectacularly unsuccessful."

New Year's may have passed, but diet sites continue to keep weight-loss resolutions front and center. So how are these URLs taking advantage of the masses' weighty concerns while creating marketing opportunities?

Me-Media takes another dubious step forward with video avatar ringtones from online phone retailer Wirefly.

On the major search engines, queries like "Britney Spears upskirt" and "World of Warcraft" top the charts, but at Cranky.com it's all about "arthritis," "brain-builders" and "jobs after retirement."

You used to have to take a vacation to "the happiest place on Earth" to shake hands with Mickey Mouse or visit Cinderella's Castle. Now, Disney audiences can get closer to their favorite characters with just the click of a mouse.

Before they head out on vacation, most families go online to research destinations and make reservations. Online marketing and media programs should ignite their wanderlust, while making booking easier than a trip to the supermarket.

As we began pulling out of the recession, experts said we would again start to see "big ideas" from the Internet. But not until the explosion of social networking and UGC models in 2006 did Web 2.0 really begin to take off.

Can online video live up to the hype? In many ways, 2006 was the year when online video finally hit fast-forward. The tremendous use of popular sites, such as YouTube and iTunes, made the industry take notice of video's potential to help advertisers reach audiences and possibly provide publishers with a meaningful new revenue stream.

Some cars are for feeding the heart, while others are more for carrying the groceries. It's this dichotomy - the fact that some consumers buy for style and prestige and others go for practicality - that auto marketers are working to address in their latest round of campaigns.

OMMA's Lynne Russo Whylly sat down with Kerri Pollard, vice president of client performance at affiliate marketing network Commission Junction, to identify some of the issues and trends surrounding affiliate marketing today.