CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET PROVIDES FORUM TO MOURN PRINCESS DIANA, CHECK INQUIRY (COLUMN 52)

Princess Diana's death has consumed the world's news. Since Saturday night's fatal crash, newspapers, radios and, of course, the Internet have shared the news of her life and death.

The Internet is a great place to go for updated information about breaking news with the investigation and funeral plans. You can also find an emotional outpouring about the loss of Diana in zillions of chat rooms.

Although we took the holiday Monday, we felt compelled to write a special edition of Click and Double Click to share the Internet happenings on Diana's death.

Peggy: I feel like Diana was my friend. From the time she was engaged and married, I followed her life, the birth of her children, the breakup of her marriage. Her life is part of my life.

Joni: We're not alone. The Internet is buzzing with news of Diana. On Sunday morning, Buckingham Palace established a web site and Internet obituary. I think that says something about the World Wide Web. The site is extremely hard to access, but keep trying. You can find it at

http://www.royal.gov.uk

Peggy: If you get connected to the site but the images are broken, just hit reload the "Images" button and not the whole site. Otherwise, you might not reconnect. By Monday, Diana's Internet obituary has received more than 1.8 million hits and more than 60,500 have sent messages of condolences.

Joni: Even when you are lucky enough to log on, expect a wait. The categories include: biography, funeral arrangements, condolence book, background and press releases. But under funeral arrangements, we found the procession route to Westminster Abbey. The funeral begins at 11 a.m. Saturday -- that's 5 a.m. our time.

Peggy: All the pages are topped by the royal seal. Suddenly, she's part of the Royal family again.

Joni: Success. We accessed the condolence book and sent our own words of sympathy. They thanked us for "our kind message of condolence on the sad loss of Diana, Princess of Wales."

Peggy: Unfortunately, you can't read the other comments. I guess they don't want people pausing to read what's probably close to 100,000 comments by now. I'd like to read them all. You can also jump off to the main British Monarchy page or go straight there at

http://www.royal.gov.uk/index.htm

Joni: Just about every news organization has its own special Internet edition on Princess Diana. Take your pick: CNN, People, BBC, Reuters, Washington Post, MSNBC, Time, etc. We choose the BBC for the British point of view.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/politics97/diana

Peggy: This special report of the BBC offers up-to-the-minute news on the investigation and on funeral arrangements. You can submit your public thoughts and read messages others have sent.

Joni: There are lots of stories about the investigation, including interviews with witnesses first at the scene. You can even hear RealAudio from an American couple at the scene.

Peggy: There's also a story criticizing Germany's largest newspaper, Bild Zeitung, which ran a photograph of the crash with the victims in the car. The paper defended itself, saying there was no photographs of the bodies. The story quoted editors from around the world, saying they would refuse to print pictures from the crash site.

Joni: If you're not sure where to go, try Yahoo. On the top of their main site, there is a Princess Diana option. It offers lots of links to news sites.

http://www.yahoo.com

Peggy: We also visited the chat rooms in Yahoo. There was at least 10 on Princess Diana's death. While we were there, a debate was raging about the tabloids. I was amused they suggested harassing people who buy tabloids in the grocery store.

Joni: We had to download a special Internet chat program, but it didn't take long on our fast connection. People were pretty worked up in the chat rooms.

Peggy: Next stop, the unofficial British Royal Family Pages at

http://www.etoile.demon.co.uk/Royal.html

If you need to know more about the Royal family, you can find it here.

Joni: You can find news headlines, chat, succession, genealogy, birthdays and anniversaries, royal books, even the Queen's 1996 Christmas speech. There's also a special memorial page for Diana.

Peggy: It certainly was a lot less busy that the official site and has all the Buckingham Palace news releases and other information. The Memorial Page basically features condolences from visitors around the world. Some are calling for a boycott of tabloid newspapers and recommending the money be forwarded to Diana's favorite charities.

Joni: Where are you finding the best information about Princess Diana on the web? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.