Web Shorts

Office workers going for streaming media
A record number of U.S. office workers availed themselves of online streaming media in the month of September, according to data from Nielsen//NetRatings. Nearly 56 percent of people working in offices logged on to video or audio streaming media then. That amounts to more than 21 million people and represents a 21 percent increase over the 17 million people that did so in September 2000, the previous record high. Analysts and webcasters alike attribute the high rate of streaming media use to last month's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, because many offices did not offer television or cable news. Despite the big gains for streaming media, overall time online actually decreased 6.1 percent in September over August. Total page views slipped 9.3 percent, although people were spending 3.6 percent more time on each web page.

Sesame Street’s Bert pops up in bin Laden photos
It’s supposed to be Bert and Ernie, not Bert and Osama: What started out as a goofy internet phenomenon has taken a strange turn off-line. Images of Bert, a character on the PBS children’s series “Sesame Street,” popped up in anti-U.S. rallies in Bangladesh. Some background: Three years ago, a San Francisco-based graphic artist created a humorous web site, the theme of which was “Bert is Evil.” The site spliced the heavy-browed Muppet’s image into photos of history’s reprobates. Now, photos of Bert have been juxtaposed with photos of alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. In one collage held up by protestors in anti-U.S. rallies in Bangladesh, a small image of an angry-looking Bert is visible behind and to the right of a central image of bin Laden. The Associated Press, Reuters and Dutch news agency ANP caught the image on film, and all maintain that they did not alter the image, which is making the email inbox rounds. Sesame Workshop, which licenses Sesame Street products, says it is acting to halt the tasteless placement of the character.

Fantasy gamer’s death is faked
Even internet fantasy gaming has been affected by the attacks on America. Just ask David Dunn of Cleveland, who created a powerful character in DragonRealms, an online game featuring magic and medieval swordplay. Fellow gamers envied his character, and that envy became evident after the events of Sept. 11. Someone posing as Dunn’s distraught wife sent the game administrators an email claiming that Dunn had died in the World Trade Center collapse. The poser demanded that Dunn’s character, Bloodwrath, be given to him or her. Game administrators became suspicious as the “wife” and other players became very insistent that Bloodwrath be handed over. Actually, Dunn had been out of town and didn’t know at first what was going on with his character, which apparently is back in his hands now. Character identities have fetched prices as high as $35,000 in online auctions.

Microsoft teams with the NHL to stream hockey
In its ongoing battle with RealNetworks, Microsoft has aligned itself with the National Hockey League. MSN will broadcast NHL games through its Windows Media Player on the MSN site. The move could prove lucrative for both companies. Microsoft hopes to lure additional users to its Media Player, in addition to its paid subscription service called .NET. The hockey league will gain a platform for exposing the sport to a larger audience. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. RealNetworks already has a leg up on Microsoft in terms of partnership deals. Live basketball and baseball games and “Survivor 3: Africa” outtakes are currently part of its service. In addition, CBS signed up 56,000 users with RealNetworks this summer for an all-access pass to its "Big Brother 2" series.

Playboy.com lays off members of web staff
Sex may sell on the internet, but even Playboy is having a hard time keeping up with the sagging economy. Because of the overall decline in advertising revenues, Playboy has announced layoffs, and a third of the staff in its internet branch will be affected. Ninety-two people will lose their jobs in all, including 44 from the internet division. After this round of firings, 70 people will remain in the online division. The internet-side layoffs come despite Playboy’s having been one of the few companies to successfully persuade its users to pay for access to its content. The web site has some 95,000 paying subscribers.

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