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We present our new scheme for the classification of radial stellar surface brightness profiles for disk galaxies. We summarize the current theoretical attempts to understand their origin and give an example of an application by comparing local galaxies with their counterparts at high redshift (z approximate to 1).

Historically, galactic bulges are thought to be elliptical galaxy-like objects sitting in the middle of a generally larger disk. There are, however, more and more claims that some bulges are much more similar to disks. John Kormendy has named these pseudo-bulges. In this paper I discuss some recent integral field spectroscopy of the SAURON collaboration on a sample of 24 Sa and Sab galaxies. Using their two-dimensional maps of the stellar velocity, velocity dispersion, and absorption line strength, it is now much easier to understand the nature of nearby galactic bulges. I review several aspects of bulges, namely the surface photometry, stellar kinematics, stellar populations, the presence of interstellar matter, and their behavior in the fundamental plane of early-type galaxies.