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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Regina Lewis

Aired July 27, 2002 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Which direction was online traffic headed this week? We're taking you on a ride into cyberspace to see what's been on the minds of most Americans out there.

From Washington, were joined now by AOL's online adviser, Regina Lewis, who's going to tell us what they've been talking about.

Good morning to you, Regina.

REGINA LEWIS, AOL ONLINE ADVISER: Hi, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: What have people been following? Certainly the missing children stories have been topping headlines this week.

LEWIS: Absolutely. And those are some of the biggest search term movers of the week. Samantha Runnion, a lot of people following both the kidnap and murder, that tragic story. And a huge outpouring of well wishes and prayers for the family in message boards. Samantha would have been six years old this past week so a lot of happy birthday messages.

I caution you, they're a little bit hard to read, but they are lovely and very thoughtful. A lot of people with prayers for her mom, as well.

Here's one that's representative. It says, "Happy sixth birthday, Samantha, as you can now fly in heaven with the angels. Please give your mommy strength."

CALLAWAY: Oh, my goodness.

LEWIS: Very thoughtful.

CALLAWAY: Yes, that is thoughtful.

LEWIS: We're starting to see the same kind to thing happening right now -- I just checked following your breaking news with Cassandra Williamson in Missouri, and also the ongoing rescue effort in Pennsylvania for the miners.

CALLAWAY: You know, so what are they doing? Are they searching for more information on the story? Are they searching for ways to contact the family or how to send messages to the family? LEWIS: All of the above. Call it the modern way to mourn. What happens, I think, for all of us when you see stories like this is boy, you want to do something. And what can you do? And in a related move, America's Most Wanted, the Web site that features both missing children and wanted fugitives, also was a big spike this week. That site has a button that you can click if you've got any tips.

CALLAWAY: Now, I know business news is something that everyone's been watching. How could you not with the wild ride on Wall Street that we have seen? Are people interested in some of these companies that are, that have been in the headlines? Are they wanting to know exactly how this happened?

LEWIS: Oh, absolutely. I mean people are searching for terms like SEC and IRS. But probably from the consumers' standpoint, the biggest word this week was employment. There is a record number, 13.7 million resumes posted on a popular job site, Monster.com. To compare that to, I looked at the jobs area on AOL. Two hundred and forty-five open positions listed.

CALLAWAY: Really?

LEWIS: So if you are looking for one of those, you might want to check that out.

CALLAWAY: That's interesting.

LEWIS: Yes, so -- it is.

CALLAWAY: Is that something new, Regina? Have you seen a surge like that before?

LEWIS: Oh, well, resumes online and looking for work online is big. That is a record number of open resumes posted online. I think increasingly in this climate if you want to get hired, you've got to pull out all of the stops, online and offline.

CALLAWAY: Some people looking for jobs out there. What else are they looking for? I know certainly health and diet are always a big concern.

LEWIS: Yes, always. Atkins, this whole carbohydrate craze very, very popular online. I looked at a survey. Forty percent of people polled said they'd tried it. Twenty-two percent said they'd tried it successfully.

CALLAWAY: Really?

LEWIS: But a lot of people are looking for words like Atkins, related words, the Zone diet and low carbohydrates.

CALLAWAY: You know, I'm always curious when I read these boards on how many people are faking it or they're being, you know, truthful when they're saying whether or not something has worked or didn't work, you know? LEWIS: Well, I think there's also a lot of back and forth dialogue. And people are interested in anecdotal information. I think, you know, on topics like dieting, people want to trade secrets.

CALLAWAY: Right.

LEWIS: They're also particularly interested in, which is the case with Atkins and a lot of these protein diets, which celebrities are taking advantage of this kind of thing. It's the same kind of thing people gravitate towards in magazines.

CALLAWAY: Any surprises? Any hot topics like on the entertainment side there? Have people been looking about?

LEWIS: Yes, a couple. "Crossing Over" with John Edward, a very popular show. It was a big spiker this week. Be careful with the spelling there because John Edwards is the popular senator from North Carolina. It's very different. Paul McCartney announced that he's going to continue his U.S. tour. A lot of people clamoring for those dates and to order tickets online. So that was an interesting one.

And Lance Armstrong, very, tomorrow he is expected to win his fourth consecutive Tour de France title. You can get a lot more out of the race if you go to his Web site in advance. They've got maps of the various routes. They also have information on viewing parties. So if you want to watch it with other people in your area, you can find out who's doing what across the country.

CALLAWAY: Regina, it's always great to hear what people are, other people are out there searching on the Web for and sometimes it happens to be what we're looking at. So it's interesting.

LEWIS: Yes.

CALLAWAY: Thank you, Regina.

Regina Lewis with AOL.

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