EarthCam provides and easy way to search for cameras trained on subjects as diverse as penguins at New York City's Central Park Zoo and the Earth as viewed from the moon. Let us count the ways. Three years ago, just over a third of a million people bought those little eyeball-shaped cameras called webcams that live on top of a computer monitor, connect to the Internet and can turn anyone's life into a continuous broadcast. Nine years on, thousands of people are shamelessly training web cameras on themselves and sharing the intimate details of their lives with anyone who chooses to surf to their sites. A handy business tool, spy camera or perverted sex toy.
Webcams are so versatile.
It was truly a case of old media meeting new media with arms open wide. With a connection to the Internet, you can travel from your desktop to the Acropolis in mere seconds. The fusion of Internet technology and wanderlust has created a new mode of tourism. Just when you thought your Internet addiction couldn't get any worse, along come webcams. Although computers are the source of all Y2K panic and preparation, although the more obvious thing to do at the turn of the millennium is to raise a toast and kiss a significant other, there will no doubt be people who actually want to watch the date roll over on their computers and use the Web as a way to keep tabs on the world.