Taken as a whole, 2009 was a great year for Twitter. The social media site neared 58 million registered users, each revealing life details in 140 characters or less. But the big gains came in the year's first half, leading some to begin to wonder whether Twitter has reached its peak.

Christie's International says expects to have a better year in 2010 than it did in 2009. Yet there are degrees of recovery: Though the practice of guaranteeing minimum prices is poised to return, sellers won't see a swift return to the prices objects fetched at auction in 2007.

FriendFinder Network, formerly known as Penthouse, needs money fast. The weight of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt has prompted it to turn to public capital markets. It%u2019s a desperate move -- in fact, the same move the company made a year ago under the same circumstances.

After a year and a half of art market anguish, there are signs of a comeback, with the tone set by Lucian Freud's black eye. The coming wave of contemporary art auctions are estimated to be 68% higher than last year, bringing a renewed hope to collectors around the world.

Twitter has big dreams for 2010, with speculation ranging from an acquisition to an IPO. But the company's major challenge is still bringing in revenue, so now, the microblogging service is looking to hire people who specialize in making money.

After a rough 2009 -- even with the recovery in public capital markets -- investors in private equity funds remained cautious with their cash, a trend that appears likely to continue.

Porn DVD sales are off nearly 50% from their peak in 2006, when they hit nearly $4.3 billion. Reports from the annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas confirm the industry is feeling the effects of the economic downturn.

Recent news that Twitter may be in the black is probably hasty. After a closer look at Twitter's deals and digging into the numbers, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Twitter has turned the corner. And 2010 could be ugly, too.

The porn business is going to keep its elbow room. A petition by an AIDS advocacy group to require that adult film companies use condoms when shooting movies has been denied by a Los Angeles judge.

Facebook and other social networking sites have developed an unusual, but perhaps unsurprising, new fan base: divorce attorneys. As more people stray into infidelity via connections made on the Internet, lawyers are profiting from the evidence left behind by all that online over-sharing.