Web Shorts

War rivals basketball as top web search
Although NCAA basketball inspired fewer searches than it has in past years, it remained atop the Lycos search list this week despite a strong surge of queries about the war in Iraq. March Madness is the most-searched sporting event on Lycos every year. But this week, searches were off by about 30 percent versus last year, largely because searchers had refocused their attention on the war that began Wednesday. The tournament held only a 1 percent edge in searches last week and will likely drop this week. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was the No. 4 topic while President Bush entered at 25. Most Bush searchers were looking for text of the Iraq speeches he gave on Monday and Wednesday. Bush bashers the Dixie Chicks soared to the No. 8 spot. Al-Jazeera, which aired controversial footage of U.S. POWs over the weekend, was the most-searched term on Sunday, generating three times as much traffic as any other term.

Traffic surges to new English al-Jazeera site
And speaking of al-Jazeera, the Arabic news network debuted an English-language web site Monday that has been slammed with traffic. The crowds have slowed download time so far. The site (English.aljazeera.net) posts confirmation that it has shown footage of the slain bodies of 10 U.S. troops and several POWs in the past two days. The move angered many U.S. military officials and lawmakers; the network lost its New York Stock Exchange credentials on Monday. Several American networks have since shown the footage. Based in Qatar, al-Jazeera's point of view differs substantially from that of most Western media outlets. A sampling of Monday’s headlines: “Hunger turns Iraqi civilians against US ‘saviours;’” “The oil gravy train could derail;” and “US ‘precision bomb’ destroys civilian bus.” The network has been called Osama TV by some Americans because it aired video tape of the terrorist leader’s speeches.

Iraqi blogger gives first-hand view of Baghdad
The Iraqi web logger Salam Pax has developed such a following that his readers actually knocked his site’s server offline over the weekend. Pax, the pseudonym for an Iraqi living in Baghdad, has been filing the only known war reports from an actual citizen within the bombarded city. His web site, http://dear_raed.blogspot.com, received so much traffic Saturday and Sunday that the server crashed. Pax also reports an avalanche of messages questioning his real identity. The web site is written in English by Pax, whose pen name combines the Arabic and Latin words for peace. Though he does not approve of the U.S. invasion, Pax does not like Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime, either. A sample of his weekend musings: "Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for them to do," he wrote after an Iraqi politician spoke to the media. And: "Today before noon I went out with my cousin to take a look at the city. Two things. 1) the attacks are precise. 2) they are attacking targets which are just too close to civilian areas in Baghdad.”

Hotmail thwarts spammers with message limit
In order to fight spammers who may be sending from its free email service, Microsoft’s MSN has limited the number of messages that users can send per day. Regular customers should have no problem with the 100 per 24 hours limit. But those who send mass e-advertisements may be hampered enough to stop or severely curtail use of free Hotmail accounts. Microsoft says that the average Hotmail user sends fewer than 100 emails per day. Those who use the company’s paid services will not face restrictions. Microsoft did not publicly announce the changes, saying Monday that it went into effect about two weeks ago. Anti-spam software company Brightmail estimates that about 40 percent of email messages sent per day are actually spam.

AOL radio ditches RealNetworks for Dolby
America Online will drop RealNetworks in favor of Dolby, at least in one area of its service. The country’s largest internet service provider will confirm in the next two weeks that its radio service has swapped audio streaming technology providers. Dolby AAC will now be used for narrowband and broadband Radio@AOL. Future plans include audio-ripping software. AOL will still use RealNetworks for other parts of its site. This marks one of the first true blows to RealNetworks, the longtime leader in streaming technology that is now battling Microsoft for market share. America Online, a longtime RealNetworks supporter, worked with the company to start the online music subscription site MusicNet recently. But RealNetworks said that it will continue to partner with AOL despite the switch.

Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us