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Consumer electronics retailing giant Best Buy is coming to an airport near you. With 965 stores in the U.S. alone, Best Buy is already one of the most ubiquitous retail chains in America. Now, the Richfield, Minn.-based company will soon have kiosks peddling electronics gear at major airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. "We have very loyal customers, and we're always trying to find a new way to engage them," said Jeff Dudash, a Best Buy spokesperson.

It's no fun shopping alone. That's the theory behind social shopping, a trend that combines social networking with e-commerce. It's a trend that's coming into its own as increasing numbers of online shoppers turn to the sites for fun, companionship, and camaraderie with other shoppers. "Shopping is a very social, interactive experience," Manish Chandra, the CEO and cofounder of social shopping site Kaboodle, told the E-Commerce Times. "Shopping is not just a transactional experience."

By a vote of 3-2, the Federal Communications Commission has sharply rebuked Comcast for its network management practices. It found not only that Comcast's practices were invasive, but also that the company was likely motivated by anticompetitive issues. "The Commission found that Comcast monitors its customers' connections using deep packet inspection and then determines how it will route some connections based not on their destinations but on their contents," said the FCC in a statement.

At first it seemed like ordinary shoplifting -- stuffing a few pairs of jeans into an oversize bag and walking out of the store. But the thieves got bolder. They began showing up in groups of five or six in the middle of the day, spraying store clerks with mace and knocking customers out of the way as they gathered armfuls of clothes. Sometimes they tossed a brick through the glass. Sometimes they drove a truck through the front door. The thieves aren't looking for just any kind of jeans. They're snatching high-end designer duds that sell for $150 to $350.

Sony announced Thursday that the new iteration of its Reader digital book will be able to read electronic books published in the .epub file format, a file type gaining acceptance among major trade book publishers, many of whom have committed to begin publishing forthcoming e-books in the format. Beginning in August, the new PRS-505 Reader model will support .epub files as well as Adobe eBooks with digital rights management technology and have the capability to reflow standard text-based Portable Document Format e-books, the company said.

The company that pioneered the concept of skipping past television commercials is now introducing a new kind of TV-based advertising. TiVo has joined forces with Amazon to create an interactive system that will let viewers buy products featured on TV shows -- right from their remotes. TiVo Product Purchase will present options on the screen and give users the opportunity to order without interrupting the program. Think of it this way: If you're watching "Oprah" and her guest is an author, the book he wrote might pop up on-screen.

Money talks. So it's important for voters to know how candidates get their money, who gives it to them, and what they do with it. This information used to be buried in obscure volumes and government reports, but digital databases have changed all that. Anyone with a Web connection and the desire to do a little research can quickly learn just about whatever they want to know about candidates, politicians and money. One comprehensive source of information is the Center for Responsive Politics.

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.