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Some people are finding it tougher than ever to get a bank loan amid the nation's credit crisis, but many are getting a warmer welcome at the "teller window" on the Web. People are flocking to social network sites such as Prosper.com and Zopa.com, which connect lenders and borrowers at the grassroots level, using an eBay-style auction of loans and interest rates. Sites and players have multiplied in the nascent industry -- known as peer-to-peer online lending -- which is barely 2 years old.

Much has been made of Barack Obama's public comments on whether or not he would choose to accept public financing for his general election campaign and Republican presidential nominee John McCain's reactions to those comments. However, the legal and political issues are far more complex than the general press is reporting, said Justin Buchler, assistant professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University. One thing, though, does appear clear: Obama's Internet fundraising success matters.

As the heated Democratic primary race came to a conclusion last month, much discussion centered on presumptive nominee Barack Obama's superior fundraising. Hillary Clinton started the race with an edge among deep-pocket donors, but Obama roared to the nomination finish line with a substantial fundraising lead. Much of that money came in through the Internet, a trend that experts say will figure prominently in the general election to come.

The Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass lives in a very curious world where, as she explains to Alice, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." That sentence sums up the world of e-commerce with uncanny accuracy: No matter how hard we work to knock items off the priority list, there are always new ones popping right up to take their place. In the first generation of e-commerce, the priorities were at least easy to define: Build a site in which most customers can make purchases without things crashing more than once or twice a week.

With the advent of new personalization technologies and the integration of user-generated content, social networking, RSS feeds, multichannel interaction and Ajax-based user interfaces, online retailers are rushing to upgrade their e-commerce sites to provide better user experiences and increase customer acquisition, retention and loyalty. These upgrade projects can be large and often involve deploying a new e-commerce platform. The success of an upgrade project begins with a good project plan. However, unexpected events can happen, especially in large projects.

Beaumont, Texas, has become the testing ground for a new way to charge Internet users for access. It's meant to make heavy users pay more. Time Warner will begin rolling out an experimental program that will meter users' Web usage and bill them extra if they download or upload more than a set amount of data. Data caps aren't entirely new. You'll certainly get some attention from your ISP if you start downloading in the neighborhood of 300 GB per month, especially if you get access from a cable provider.

Most e-commerce sites are approaching their 10th birthday. The standard approach -- with left-hand navigation and search, a product catalog and product detail, cart and checkout -- is a tired format. Just like brick-and-mortar stores, Web stores need refurbishing, and retail is the new darling of Web innovation. After all, what major vertical has more to gain from the recent craze in social networks than retail? Projects are getting funded, action is taking hold, and innovation is being born.

"Sure, there's such a company. I heard of something like this way back, even as far back as the bubble. This, after all, is precisely what the Internet is for." This is the thought that naturally comes to mind, when hearing about e-commerce startup StyleShake, which enables any visitor to the site to design their own clothes and order them online. Yet, surprisingly, online clothing design has sprouted just a few small businesses. "Product customization really is an old field," explains Iris Ben-David, CEO and founder of StyleShake.

"Sure, there's such a company. I heard of something like this way back, even as far back as the bubble. This, after all, is precisely what the Internet is for." This is the thought that naturally comes to mind, when hearing about e-commerce startup StyleShake, which enables any visitor to the site to design their own clothes and order them online. Yet, surprisingly, online clothing design has sprouted just a few small businesses. "Product customization really is an old field," explains Iris Ben-David, CEO and founder of StyleShake.

"Sure, there's such a company. I heard of something like this way back, even as far back as the bubble. This, after all, is precisely what the Internet is for." This is the thought that naturally comes to mind, when hearing about e-commerce startup StyleShake, which enables any visitor to the site to design their own clothes and order them online. Yet, surprisingly, online clothing design has sprouted just a few small businesses. "Product customization really is an old field," explains Iris Ben-David, CEO and founder of StyleShake.