YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) -- A new Webcam that broadcasts live pictures of Old Faithful geyser is a big hit on the Internet, accounting on some days for nearly half of the online visits recorded by all National Park Service Web sites combined.
"It's really been phenomenally successful," said Yellowstone Web coordinator Tom Cawley.On the day that a short story about the Webcam appeared in The New York Times last week, the Web page featuring images from the small electronic camera in the window of the Old Faithful Visitors Center logged 181,864 "accesses," more than the number of people who visit Yellowstone on even the busiest summer day.
"That's about the best day so far," Cawley said.
One "access" of the page represents one computer downloading the geyser image from the Internet one time. However, the page automatically updates the image every 30 seconds, and each image represents one more "access" of the page. So someone who keeps the page up on their computer screen for just a few minutes could add to the access count several times.
The Old Faithful Webcam is by far the Park Service's most popular Web site. On the same day the Yellowstone Webcam page recorded 181,864 accesses, the main Park Service Web page was the second most visited Park Service site with just 15,027 accesses.
Stardot Technologies, which manufactures Webcams, donated the Old Faithful Webcam, which transmits its image over a telephone line from Old Faithful to Mammoth Hot Springs and from there to a main National Park Service server in Washington, D.C. A similar Webcam provided by CoolWorks of Gardiner broadcasts a live image from Mammoth Hot Springs.
Both cameras as well as newly added interactive panoramic images of scenic locations throughout Yellowstone are accessible through the park's "visiting online" Web page at (http://www.nps.gov/yell/tours/index.htm).
Park officials have wondered whether the Webcams and other new features of the park's beefed-up Web site will encourage more visits to the sometimes crowded park or whether vicarious online viewing will satisfy the urge many people have to see the park.
"I don't know. People watch TV to see Yellowstone, but they still want to come to visit," Cawley said. "Whether it enhances people's desire to come is a good question, but I don't think it's going decrease it."