Like a mirror of the grief that has overtaken the world since the death of Princess Diana, the Internet is filling with testaments to her star-crossed, fairy-tale life.
The hundreds of memorial books being filled at St. James' Palace have been joined by dozens of Web sites that accept and display testimonials from online mourners. The search site Yahoo! lists almost 100 new sites to honor the princess.
With titles such as ''A Queen of Hearts: Princess Diana Memorial'' http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/9101/ and ''Diana, Princess of the People'' http://www.troppoheads.com/diana/, the sites are virtual shrines to the princess' memory.
There's even a Web ring of memorial sites http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/1009/diring.htm to make the tour easier.
The official Royal Family condolence site http://www.royal.gov.uk/vbk/ has been so busy that it is frequently unavailable. And it only accepts messages; it doesn't post any.
Tragedies such as this demonstrate the power of the Web to quickly link the world. It also reflects how highly we regarded the mother of the future king of England.
The Usenet news groups, usually the more raucous and profane areas of the Internet, showed overwhelming restraint and grief about Diana's death. Even the anti-Diana newsgroup alt.princess.di.di.die - created long before the accident - contained messages respectful of her memory.
A search of Deja News, which catalogs newsgroup messages, found testimonials to the princess in hundreds of newsgroups ranging from alt.showbiz.gossip to rec.music.tori-amos. And on the night of the accident, hundreds of messages were posted with the news of the accident.
That's not to say that the tragedy hasn't attracted the prurient. In a couple of sites that specialize in tasteless photos, faked images of the accident in the Pont d'Alma tunnel can be found. One amateurish attempt shows a bloody princess sitting in an almost intact limousine, while another took a photo of the wrecked car and carefully inserted a female face in the back seat.
Several messages noted that the gory photos must be fakes, since ''if these photos are being shopped for a million dollars, why would anyone post them on this stupid newsgroup?''
And messages asking for more wreck photos generally brought responses such as ''you sick scum!''
While the media has shown many photos of the wrecked Mercedes after it was removed from the scene, the German tabloid newspaper Bild Zeitung (http://www.bild.de) printed a photo of the accident scene, prompting a storm of protest. That single photo has been posted on several sites and newsgroups.
Newsgroups devoted to collecting celebrity objects were busy discussing the value of Diana collectibles. One dealer suggested her autograph is the most valuable.
''Her autograph was worth a small fortune to begin with let alone with this recent tragedy.'' the dealer wrote in alt.collecting.autographs. ''Princess Di's autograph is officially unaffordable to almost everyone.''
The tragedy has also sparked discussion among conspiracy buffs, who seem to be able to find the evil actions of government in just about anything. These folks, writing in alt.conspiracy, speculate that Princess Di was murdered, with possible culprits including the Mafia, IRA, Prince Charles, the Queen, or assassins from Britain's spy agency MI6.
''Reaction of British political leaders is telling,'' one poster wrote. ''William Hague, the Conservative leader, seems unmoved, unaffected, disinterested, trying to sound concerned but failing. Did Hague suspect what was going to happen to Diana? Are the Conservative old guard privately relieved that the 'loose cannon' has been finally silenced?''
Others are less serious: ''Diana always had a thing about Elvis. She staged this accident to get close to him and now they are both happily sheep farming in New Zealand.''
LOCAL REACTION
E-mail Charles Brewer with questions, comments and suggestions at CBrewer@enquirer.com Charles Brewer's columns can be found at http://enquirer.com/columns/brewer
