ELECTRONIC EXPLORER : Keeping a Virtual Eye on Earth and the World Through ‘Webcams’

Worried that one of the driest East Coast summers in recent memory will put a damper on New England’s annual color show, jittery leaf-peepers are already checking out the row of sugar maples featured on the Pawlet, Vt., Web site (https://www.vtweb.com/foliage/cam). What they’re finding, via photos updated every 15 minutes: a reassuring green rather than crumpled brown, along with the stern message, “We are not having a drought and you needn’t alter your plans.”

Whether they feature fall foliage (https://leafpeepers.com/cams.htm), African wildlife (https://www.africam.com) or the hurricane-lashed beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks (https://cil-www.oce.orst.edu:8080/duck.html), travel-related “Webcams”--digital video cameras that transmit images to Web pages in intervals from seconds to minutes--are flourishing.

While authoritative counts of the number of Webcam sites don’t exist, a popular directory called EarthCam (https://www.earthcam.com) includes more than 5,000 sites, and its listings have doubled annually over the past three years.

Launched in the spring, Princess Cruises’ eight video cameras (https://www.princess.com) are luring more than 75,000 virtual passengers a day to views of Pacific Ocean whitecaps and Mediterranean ports of call. Rival Norwegian Cruise Line (https://www.ncl.com), meanwhile, installed a Webcam on the bridge of its new Norwegian Sky last month.

To be sure, says Len Evancic of Leonard’s Cam World (https://www.leonardsworlds.com), most Webcams “are still in the gimmick stage,” comparable to the early days of broadcasting, when even a test pattern generated oohs and ahhs. Ghoulish case in point: what’s billed as “the ONLY LIVE view available in the world from the Sniper’s Perch” on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza, Dallas’ most infamous tourist attraction (https://www2.earthcam.com/jfk).

Technology has improved dramatically, with some Webcams allowing viewers to select their own images or zoom in for closer details (check out the satellite views of Earth at https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth). But few online video cameras can capture high-quality nighttime images, and variations of “our cam is undergoing maintenance and is temporarily unavailable” remain maddeningly common.

Still, Evancic adds, many outdoor Webcams have proved to be valuable tools, from traffic video cameras that give drivers a heads-up on avoiding tie-ups in major cities (https://www.trafficam.com) to video cameras stationed on mountains that let skiers check out conditions before they head for the slopes (https://www.rsn.com/cams).

Besides, argues a Web site dubbed Around the World in 80 Clicks (https://www.steveweb.com/80clicks), there’s something magical about being able to sit in a windowless cubicle and see someplace an ocean away at the same time: “Accustomed to the computer extending our brain and memory, we are now using it to extend our senses as well. More important than just depicting the weather or time of day, it allows a fleeting glance into the daily rituals in these far-off places and how similar they are to our own.”

Small byte: Microsoft’s popular online travel agency, Expedia.com (https://www.expedia.com), has launched a new service that lets would-be guests set the price they’re willing to pay for unspecified name-brand or independent hotels in 14 major U.S. cities. The concept is strikingly similar to that of Priceline.com (https://www.priceline.com), which peddles both airline tickets and hotel rooms on a name-your-own-price basis. Like Priceline, Expedia supplies travelers with quality ratings and a range of published prices for hotels in the cities they’re considering. Expedia promises a yea or nay within minutes; once a bid is accepted, reservations are nonrefundable.