If this year had a single theme, it would be rebirth.

Five years after the dot-com meltdown, the Internet's technologies, industries and culture are showing a kind of vigor and inspiration not seen since the 1990s.

Digital communities and interactive technologies are thriving as never before. The long-predicted convergence of television and computer technologies is finally taking place. At the same time, a generation weaned on the Internet is coming of age and inspiring social revolution on the Web.

Although Google's moves are cited most often as technology harbingers, many other important developments can be found in such diverse areas as digital photography, automobiles and cutting-edge technologies like spintronics. Opportunities have spread around the globe, leading countries such as India into a technology renaissance.

Success also breeds competitive animosities, however, and the resulting disputes have taken a predictable path to Washington.

India's good fortune created new calls to rescind the controversial H-1B foreign labor program, for example. Appeals were made elsewhere in government to address issues such as identity theft, broadband's expansion and patent reform. In light of the Supreme Court's ruling against Grokster and other networks, file-sharing technologies were also disputed.

For the technology industry, all of this translates to disruption--and companies have responded in kind. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard underwent major reorganizations at their most senior ranks. The rush to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape also led to some conciliatory moves that seemed impossible only a few years ago: Microsoft buried the hatchet with RealNetworks and even reached out to hackers to help address security problems.

But the most surprising alliance of all was Apple Computer's decision to build computers with chips from Intel--the microprocessing half of the "Wintel" duopoly. If nothing else of note occurred in 2005, that decision alone would be reason enough to see that the technology universe has become a vastly different place.

--Mike Yamamoto

2005 Highlights

Picture this: A new breed of camera

The chip industry wants to bring PC-style economics to digital photography.

HP looks beyond Fiorina

As CEO Carly Fiorina departs, Hewlett-Packard confronts stubborn market realities.

Rocky road for car 'black boxes'

Tracking devices are touted for safety but raise fears of an Orwellian society.

Me TV: Television of the future

Viewers are gaining control over the tube with interactivity and custom networks.

New life for Moore's law

Emerging technologies may stall the long-predicted demise of the famed computing principle.

Political connections in broadband

Conflicts erupt as local governments try to create publicly funded services for all citizens.

Apple's switch: Intel inside

The Mac maker partners with Intel in a relationship once unthinkable in the technology world.

Microsoft meets the hackers

Outsiders are invited to the Windows empire for the express purpose of exploiting computer flaws.

India's tech renaissance

Once hired to run support desks, Indian companies are branching out to all sectors of technology.

File-swap fallout

The Supreme Court rules that Grokster can be held liable for piracy in a huge victory for the entertainment industry.

Staking a claim in the patent gold mine

Companies make a business of buying patents in what some call a form of legalized extortion.

Invention intervention

Proposals to fix the U.S. Patent Office run a wide gamut, from forced licensing to the elimination of software patents.

Legislating creativity

A controversial bill has become a flash point about everything that's right--and wrong--with patents.

Makeover for Microsoft

Software titan sweeps away its old structure to execute faster.

Waging battle on foreign labor

With the rise of offshoring, critics say the controversial H-1B program is obsolete.

Real, Microsoft reach truce

Agreement on digital music ends years of legal disputes between the two companies.

Separating myth from reality in ID theft

Media reports have given rise to much misinformation and confusion about online fraud.

Taking back the Web

New technologies and the "millennials" generation are returning the Internet to its social roots.