The World Wide Web is an exciting new medium for news and information dissemination. The fact that it allows continual updates of news stories as it happens while sacrificing little in the way of depth makes it superior to television and paper-bound news. Another dimension in which the Web has potential superiority is in the form of graphic-aided news. With the advent of DHTML (Dynamic HTML) and VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language), for instance, traditional news sources have more effective ways of channeling news reports. However, at present few online news providers seem to incorporate these elements in on their web sites, many prefer to merely prop web versions of static text and slow-loading images.

An exception to the rule is CNN.com, with their new InfoGlobe feature. Essentially a VRML rendition of the planet, the InfoGlobe intends to inform the web surfer on "what's going on in areas of political and/or military unrest around the world.".There are some caveats for those who intend to use this: For one, CNN.com recommends the use of a high-end Pentium (Pentium 133, Pentium II recommended) for viewing it. Also, the web browser must be Java enabled and requires the requisite plug ins. Fortunately, links for these plug ins are provided.

Once all the requirements have been satisfied, the web surfer is then ready to "experience" the Infoglobe.

Assuming the InfoGlobe loaded properly, the web surfer is greeted by a decently drawn sphere representing our fragile little cradle called Earth. The image is reminiscent of the globes used in grade school, only without country and geographical names. There is also a certain amount of Gouraoud shading used, which gives it a novel light-shaded effect. Also, one can play around with the globe by zooming and panning it. Be warned that the InfoGlobe may load improperly at times, producing a gray-sphere, for example. Also, connecting via modem to access this site may not be wise due to the size of the downloaded data required to view this feature.

On the "surface" of the InfoGlobe are black spots which represents the geographical location of military and/or political hotspots. Clicking on one of the many black blobs yields some demographic information and a watered-down version of the history of the unrest and of that locale in general. There are a number of related links common to all the hot spots regarding the weather, currency conversion and travel information to those locations. One can't help but notice that the information provided are at best highly truncated and much simplified. This is despite the fact that each trouble spot represented on this globe have much more complicated and drawn-out events which lead to the present situation than mentioned in the information provided. So, it seems that the InfoGlobe is more attuned to the sound bite news technique rather than in-depth factual analysis.

On the whole, the InfoGlobe is a welcome addition to CNN.com's online news service. However, number of technical bugs like mal-loading of the globe and the large data download size may detract people from using this feature. The shallowness of the information provided by this service does history and fact disservice; and is catered for those who want to know only the barest of facts about these trouble spots.

IQBAL SHAMSUL