DOES size matter? It's a question that has plagued the mind of men (and women, but in a different way) for time in memoriam.

But these days, it does seem that bigger is better.

Take those trendy bank ads with Tony Hopkins and that bloke out of Lock Stock; or take the way you know they are big actors: they have big audiences, and, on the internet, audience is everything.

Newspapers have always set great store by their readership figures, but, even though they know exactly how many newspapers they sell, they can only ever guess how many people actually read the paper. Usually you multiply the sales figure by about three, as some papers are ditched after one reader has had a flick through, while others are eagerly scoured by an an entire household. And you never actually know what pages they actually read. Now with on-line newspapers such as the online version of the Evening Telegraph, This is Lancashire, we can not only tell how many people have logged on, we can also tell exactly how many times any particular bit has been looked at. Take last month, for example; the busiest bit of our site was the Burnley sports pages, not doubt in some small part to the Clarets' success in escaping the clutches of Division 2. During May we had 46,984 requests for pages in the Burnley sports section; Rovers fans might want to know that the Blackburn sports section had 36,159 page requests in the same month. Overall, thisislancashire recorded 458,050 page requests during the month of May, making us the biggest local portal site in Lancashire. Size matters.

www.thisislancashire.co.uk

Shearer is man of the match

APPARENTLY Alan Shearer is quite well-known in these parts, so readers may be interested to know their former Ewood Park favourite has been voted the PSInet man of the match after England's lucky scrape past the German's last Saturday.

How do I know this? I know this because PSInet are the people behind the official Euro 2000 website, which has all the latest news, views, pictures and match reports from everyone's favourite soccer championship, and of course they were there again on Tuesday at England's defeat against Romania.

And as well as charting the competition's future progress, there are plenty of other things to do on the site, including some fun video clips (Hugh Dallas and Graham Poll see the funny side, anyone? They're both referees, for those of you with as much interest in Euro 2000 as Mrs Lewis. There are all the facts and figures any stats anorak could wish for, and you can even download wallpapers from your favourite matches. Burnley fans will probably like the one from last Saturday's match which features Shearer grinning in a way unseen since he pocketed his signing-on fee from Newcastle; but no one is likely to bother with the one rubbing our brave bulldog noses in the tragic result from Tuesday's match. Who cares about Italy on Saturday?

www.euro2000.org

Slim, shady world

FANS of the popular if a little controversial rap artiste Eminem should make a virtual beeline for his new internet adventure, Slim Shady World.Com

The site, which launches any day now, is based on hookt.com, a New York-based hip-hop site dedicated to music fashion and all that.

The new Slim Shady site will be dedicated to just one of Marshall Mathers' multiple personalities, and will include a 26-week animated series featuring the various adventures of the Detroit MC. It will also feature chats, trivia contests, online games, interviews, news and more.

Please be aware that Mr Mathers is somewhat uninhibited in his use of language, and take this as the equivalent of one of those annoying "Parental Advisory" stickers you get on CDs these days

www.slimshadyworld.com

www.hookt.com

Carry Online!

FAN sites are the very core of the web, with the whole gamut of society from the fresh-faced and innocent to the truly deranged putting their hobbies, interests and psychotic paranoid delusions online for all the rest of us to enjoy. One of the very best fan sites, and not a very weird one, is dedicated to that bastion of British cinema, the Carry On films.

Carry Online is produced by a chap called Andy (whose on-line biog is one of the best bits of the site) and it is a real labour of love, the kind of love that sometimes ends up with injunctions. You can read all about the Carry Ons and their stars, check facts and even see who has won the Matron Awards for the most popular star, movie etc.

If you produce a fan site, or have a favourite of your own, please let me know. Any produced by teenagers with a limited grasp of the language their site is produced in and featuring transcripts of dreams involving their idols would be particularly welcome.

www.carryonline.com

Techno corner

MANY thanks to Jim Buckley who has sent in a query about java script; unfortunately I have been away for the past couple of weeks (and you didn't even notice I'd gone, did you? That's service for you), and we haven't had time yet to sort out his query; rest assured Jim we will be getting you an answer soon!

Meanwhile let me recommend a little site which will be a boon to all amateur website designers out there who want to get their heads round Flash, the primo way of getting your site to sing, dance and generally amaze the viewer.

Flash Kit has a whole load of downloads including trials of Flash producer, and gives you a real insight into how to use Flash and the possibilities it allows in website production. Have a look, and have a play!

www.FlashKit.com