In retrospect, Hype'd would've been a better name than Amp'd for the heavily-backed mobile startup that went bankrupt in July after only two years in business. From the beginning, the so-called mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, seemed a throwback to the dot-com days when investors eagerly poured vast sums into grandiose Internet ventures.

From high-def TVs to iPhones to game consoles, new devices are proving irresistible to gadget-crazy U.S. consumers, and the Web is a natural playing field for engaging them.

Lucky Brand's tour bus hits the road with DenimHighway.com -- a grassroots marketing/party/brand campaign that invites consumers to interact with the brand outside retail.

One of the first local social networking sites was i-neighbors.org, launched in 2004 as part of an MIT research project and now existing in more than 3,000 communities around the United States and Canada.

The Web is well known for its ability to bring the faraway to your screen. The new frontier for social networks: introducing you to the guy who lives across the street.

One day in the future, mobile search might appear indistinguishable from Web queries. But for now, people come to mobile search with very different expectations than Web search.

Niche companies and the Big Three search engines seek opportunity in the nascent mobile market. Advertisers, meanwhile, watch and wait.

The iPhone changed the way we view the Web on mobile devices, but how long will it be before the marketplace catches up?

What happened to summer? I'm writing this on a muggy day in mid-August and the closest I feel to the season is the sundress and flip-flops I'm wearing to the office because the a/c is acting up.

Members of the Digg.com community rose up in revolt when management appeared to violate the news site's core principle of user-controlled content by stopping a member from publicizing a code for disabling copy protection built into high-definition DVDs. Ultimately, Digg management relented.