Anna Kournikova virus sprints all over the net
Pro tennis player Anna Kournikova may not have many victories to her credit, but the blonde 19-year-old dominates the internet in more ways than one. A virus disguised as a photo of the much-downloaded Russian tennis star spread with astonishing speed on Monday--twice as fast as the infamous Love Bug. For example, UK email service MessageLabs got about 2,900 tainted emails from almost 300 different domains within a five-hour span. The virus is actually a worm, meaning that it multiplies by mailing itself to all email addresses in recipients’ Microsoft Outlook address books. The bug arrives as an email with a subject line that reads "here you are ;-)" or "here you go ;-)." As viruses go, Anna Kournikova is fairly benign. No damage to infected computers or networks has been reported. The leading antivirus companies have devised patches for detecting the Anna virus. Computer users are advised not to open this or any other strange attachments.

AdZone: Web advertising growing
America Online spent more on online advertising last month than any other company, according to a report by AdZone Interactive. AdZone suggests that online spending is robust despite layoffs at internet companies and an overall gloomy climate for dot.coms. AOL, AdZone estimates, spent $36.5 million promoting its AOL.com site online. ESPN.com came in at No. 2, with approximately $26.3 million in spending, followed by Nextcard.com at No. 3 with about $19.2 million spent. AdZone’s dollar figures are estimates based on rates listed on web site rate cards and may therefore not represent actual dollars spent. The report notes that the mass firings have created opportunities for online job and resume sites--for instance, Jobsonline.com spent about $13 million promoting itself on the web. AdZone claims overall internet advertising increased 5 percent from December to January. In January, online revenue reached $1.9 billion, up from $1.8 billion the previous month. Online ad spending has jumped 228 percent since January, 2000, when about $818 million was spent. AdZone tracks advertising on 1,700 U.S. web sites, which together comprise 95 percent of online ad revenue.

Vivendi unveils trilingual Education.com
Vivendi Universal Publishing has unveiled an education portal called Education.com. Education.com features content in English, German, and French. A Spanish version will be rolled out later this year. Families in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States tested Education.com for three months to help Vivendi tailor the site to reflect regional academic standards and cultural differences. Vivendi is backing the site with a $25 million investment. The site has a section for children ages three to 12 called KidSpace, which features secure chat rooms dedicated to chat between children all over the world, plus a homework help section and a search engine. Another section, OurFamilySpace.com, is for parents seeking to help their children with their homework. A third channel, TeachSpace, provides classroom resources for teachers.

Amazon now peddling downloadable software
E-tailer Amazon.com has started selling downloadable software. Shoppers can obtain copies of software quickly this way, without having to wait for their items to be physically shipped. When downloadable software is purchased, users receive an email containing a link to a web site where they can go to download the software. The titles available at the Software Downloads Store include Intuit’s Quicken and Turbotax, Symantec’s Norton Antivirus 2001 and PGP Personal Privacy from McAfee. The programs will cost the same as they usually do, but shoppers will not have to pony up shipping and handling charges. The quick software sales mark yet another quest on Amazon’s part for additional revenue streams, even as it weeds out items that aren’t big sellers. The online retailer says it plans to become profitable by the end of the year.

Quokka Sports boots 217 workers
Quokka Sports, the company that operates NBC’s  Olympics web sites, has fired 217 employees, almost 60 percent of its staff. The layoffs follow an earlier spate of mass firings in November, when Quokka slashed 90 positions. Quokka blames slow ad sales as the reason behind the slump, coupled with disappointing levels of traffic to the NBC Summer Olympics site during the Olympic Games in Sydney last year. Ten million visitors were expected, and 5.6 million actually materialized. The site is still online, but draws far fewer visitors than either CBS SportsLine or ESPN.com. Earlier this month, Quokka unveiled the Winter Olympics web site, SaltLake2002.com. The job cuts should reduce the 5-year-old company’s monthly expenditures by 65 percent, to about $2 million a month. As of Dec. 31, Quokka had just $50 million in the bank.

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