There was a time when back-to-school shopping meant new clothes, pens and pencils and a Trapper Keeper binder - at least for those of us who grew up in the 1980s. But nowadays, bigger-ticket items, including computers, are on the list, and big bucks are being spent.

For the last few years, online spending has been the growth engine of advertising, posting 30 percent annual gains on the promise of a digital media future. Then came the mortgage meltdown and fears of a broader recession threatening to blow a hole in the Web 2.0 bubble.

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments," a consumer-generated sensation later adopted by the brands themselves, was named Best in Show at this year's OMMA Awards.

The hot new opportunity in Web video is to be a matchmaker. More than a half-dozen companies are jockeying for position to become the leader in pairing ads with video content, in what is fast shaping up to be the new gold rush in Web video.

Pre-roll ads are a little bit like the presidential primaries. Everyone loves to criticize them and all the attendant hoopla, yet we still use them as the principal method for selecting our leaders. The overwhelming majority of video ad money continues to place re-purposed TV creative online, even as columnists and trade conference panelists routinely upbraid the industry's failure to embrace dedicated online creative and more consumer-friendly formats.

Have we seen this episode before? The Digital Entertainment Network in 1999? Warner Bros. "Entertaindom" portal of 2000? Last year's underwhelming "Gold Rush?" series on AOL?

Asians are swelling the ranks of American consumers: U.S. Census data released in September found 10 million immigrants from this geographic region.

You can buy plane tickets, percale sheets and paper clips on the Web these days. But if you're looking for a new Rolex, you're out of luck.

Porcupines are generally thought of as prickly fellows - but not JD. He's a fun-loving little guy with a new lease on life thanks to the positive energy found in New Balance's NB zip running shoes. In fact, this positive energy actually saved his life as we see in "Roadkill."

Before joining Heavy in September, Eric Hadley spent 10 years at Microsoft, most recently as general manager of global marketing for Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions team. In that role, he managed the global rollout of Microsoft adCenter, the company's next-generation advertising platform.