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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Regina Lewis

Aired August 10, 2002 - 08:17   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Barry Bonds has been in the record books for less than a day, but he's moving up fast in the list of most requested Internet searches.
Joining us to talk more about that and other hot optics online this week is Regina Lewis, AOL's online adviser.

Hey, Regina, thanks for joining us.

REGINA LEWIS, AOL ONLINE ADVISER: Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: So Barry Bonds, a lot of people trying to check him out on the Web?

LEWIS: Oh, basically. Well, he hit it out of the park last night. What happened is people came home from the game, logged on and said hey, I was there, here's what happened. It went something like this, which is pretty neat to see. Then the purists weighed in and discounted, you see a lot of that online, as well, saying, you know, I'll take Hank Aaron any day.

In an overnight poll online, 45 percent of people said they think he'll now surpass Willie Mays' record of 650.

Here are some of the messages. You can see people saying they were at the game. Some of these were posted at 4:30 this morning. So I think people were celebrating after that game.

COOPER: I'm surprised they were able to type. What else in the news are people looking up?

LEWIS: Well, in the news, the separation of the young Guatemalan conjoined twins this week at UCLA. Along with all the news media, the UCLA Web site is providing ongoing updates on this miraculous surgery. The last update they had on their site was at 3:00 p.m. yesterday. They said they expected nothing major on the medical front this weekend, that they were starting to provide nutrition. So it's really interesting to see. A lot of people are fascinated by this whole very rare situation and they have photos and lots of explanations. So it's...

COOPER: I also imagine the West Nile Virus is getting a lot of people online.

LEWIS: Big time. It's actually the number 67 search term this week. That is giant. The Centers for Disease Control has a wonderful site at cdc.gov. You can go there and learn all the things you need to know. And I think people are wondering what does it look like, how could I get it, what is this special sunscreen with DEET I should have. They're even Web casting special sessions with some of their experts, if you really want to know, you know, more about it.

COOPER: Now, also, on the business side, some good things about telemarketers, or against telemarketers, a good site.

LEWIS: Yes, I think this one is really neat. It was certainly popular. This week it went up to number 200. The attorney state general in Pennsylvania, a guy named Mike Fisher, created a site called nocallsplease.com. If you go to that site, you can actually get yourself on a do not call list. It's provided to telemarketers on a quarterly basis. If they call you, it's a violation of the law subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 to $3,000. So hopefully that will be precedent setting. A lot of people are checking that out.

If you're wondering what the rules are in your state, you can go to governmentguide.com.

COOPER: Let's talk celebrities a little bit. Benecio Del Toro has a site that's very popular?

LEWIS: Yes, he's really popular. It's interesting to see why someone like that would climb so many spots this week. A lot of his famous films, "Traffic" and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas," were on cable this week and I think sometimes what happens is people see those movies and are reminded, oh, you know, I forgot I liked this guy so much, and they look it up.

So you'll see that also when DVDs and videos are released. There are related spikes.

COOPER: I'm not going to ask, put you on the spot and ask you how many people are trying to find out about me on the Web this week, but I know it's been skyrocketing of late, from what I understand.

LEWIS: Well, you know, it's very interesting, also there's a trend called ego surfing. So if you want to see what's out there about you, you just type in your name, Anderson. It's all there.

COOPER: What are you implying? What are you implying with that, huh? Ego surfing. I like that. I'm going to mark that, ego surfing.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Man.

COOPER: The sad story, also, about the young man who was on "Passions." That's also very popular on the Web this week, yes?

LEWIS: Yes. Young Josh Ryan Evans. This was an interesting one. Soap operas and people who watch them, they create communities online. They talk about the shows, etc. It's always a phenomenon.

In this case, this young boy tragically passed away. Interestingly, he was on the show on Friday and played an angel. And a lot of people were sort of curious, did he pass away on the show or did he pass away in real life? And NBC on the front of their Web site did post an "in loving memory" message. And right now there's also an official memorial online where you can post a message and it's really nice to see what people are writing there.

COOPER: All right, well, that was cool.

A friend of mine just told me about a Web site just the other day that I checked out yesterday. It was bizarre. Prisonpenpals.com. It's where you can like meet prisoners and converse with them.

WHITFIELD: Just in case you're not getting enough (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COOPER: I'm just throwing that out there. Yes, exactly. You're looking for some, for a pen pal.

LEWIS: I'm sure they're very responsive. They have a lot of time.

COOPER: Oh, yes. Yes, they seem to be. All right -- not that I've actually tried it yet. But I'm thinking about it. I'm searching for the appropriate prisoner.

LEWIS: And for the record I think I can...

WHITFIELD: Oh, my god. I wouldn't admit to that.

LEWIS: I think I can help Fanny Flagg get online. I'm on it.

COOPER: Oh, yes. Oh, excellent. Good. I will, we'll pass that along.

Regina, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

Regina Lewis of AOL.

Thanks.

WHITFIELD: My friend, you've got too much time in your hands.

COOPER: Someone at "NEWSNIGHT" told me about this Web site. It's fascinating.

WHITFIELD: Is it?

COOPER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: OK. Well, I'll get details later. I'll just get the details from you. I won't be looking myself.

COOPER: OK.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, all those e-mails she was talking about or responses or questions about West Nile and even the twins, the conjoined twins, now separated, well, we're getting a lot of e- mail questions about that, too. And so Elizabeth Cohen's going to be coming up to answer some of those e-mail questions. So stick around for that.

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