Rush for latest news swamps websites

By MICHAEL FOREMAN, CHRIS BARTON and AGENCIES

International news websites were swamped by a surge in visitors after yesterday's terrorist attacks.

But although internet traffic slowed and major news websites were jammed, the net proved its worth as a communications facilitator in a time of crisis.

To cope with the flood of visitors, staff at MSNBC.com removed graphics from the site to give users faster access to the news.

CNN.com also streamlined its site, temporarily removing video, ads and non-breaking news.

Reaching the ABC News site was difficult until ABC took measures, including borrowing server capacity from sister company ESPN.com.

Reports from the United States suggest thousands of people have used the net to send messages of sympathy and condolence by e-mail, or simply to tell loved ones that they were safe.

American internet service provider Prodigy was the first of several organisations which set up websites to allow people who were close to the attacks to register that they were safe at its "I'm OK" online message centre.

Berkeley graduate students also established a site. Their World Trade Center Survivor database had collected 1260 names by yesterday afternoon. Most people were recorded as being safe, but some were listed as injured, critical or missing.

United States Attorney-General John Ashcroft asked yesterday that anyone with information about the terrorist attacks contact the FBI via a website - although that site (www.ifccfbi.gov) was jammed within seconds of Ashcroft's announcement.

Local net commentator Bruce Simpson, owner of the internet news website Aardvark, said he turned to the internet after watching a second airliner smash into the World Trade Center on television soon after 1 am.

But his efforts to log in to the websites of CNN, Yahoo, FoxNews and ABCNews were unsuccessful.

"Most of the mainstream news sites were inaccessible, and feedback I've had from people in the United States said the same thing was happening there."

News of the attacks soon dominated other topics on electronic discussion bulletin boards, especially Usenet newsgroups.

The Herald website, which began running news of the disaster from 1.30 am and by 6 pm yesterday, had placed 27 stories online. It also had a surge in traffic.

Mark Ottaway, general manager of nzherald.co.nz, said the site received three to four times its normal number of visitors.

As the news broke in New Zealand, traffic climbed steeply.

Prodigy 'Im Okay' Message Centre

Berkeley 'Im Okay' Message Centre

Disaster Message Service

World Trade Center Survivor Database

FBI website to report terrorist activity


Terror in America

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims

These numbers are valid for calls from within New Zealand, but may be overloaded at the moment.

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Online database for friends and family