August 30, 2007 9:25 AM PDT
SparkNotes, the online "study guides," have been around for years, and the company is now a Barnes & Noble property. But the magical tentacles of Web 2.0 have touched it in recent years and endowed it with all kinds of newfangled features: blogs, podcasts and networking functions that let you learn all about The Turn of the Screw, the Napoleonic wars or the Krebs cycle from other SparkNotes readers. There's also a "SparkLife" section that covers everything from news to pop culture.
Photo by Staff, CNET News.com
Caption by Caroline McCarthy
