Now, just three years later, digital cameras are the latest trend to hit Web pages en masse. Just a few URLs can transport live, up-to-the-minute happenings at your favorite ski resort, bar, restaurant or bike shop. What's your drive home going to be like during rush hour? What does the sunset look like at Ninth and Pearl? What's the weather like in Seattle, where you're headed tomorrow? You name it -- it's just a mouse-click away.

"Digital cams takes the Web from a static, dead medium to being alive again. It bridges the gap between the Internet and TV," says Walter Knapp, vice president of Boulder's Digital Camera Network (www.dcn.com), formed in late 1996 to develop and integrate these digital imaging technologies for interactive networks such as the Web.

Originally, news channels set up digital cameras around the region for reporting traffic, weather and late-breaking news. However, many began putting these same camera feeds on their new Web sites "because there's a large interest from the public. We decided it would add value to our Web sites," notes David Anderson, manager of information systems and webmaster for 9News (www.9news.com).

One reason it's popular is that digital camera shots don't take much time to download on 14.4 or 28.8-speed modems. Anderson explains that digital technology uses slow-frame video compression. "It uses the essence of analog video and reconstitutes it on the other end, thus cutting the number of bits that are broadcast -- only five to 10 frames a second compared with hundreds." With digital technology, you can program the camera to repeat bits of redundant information, like the Flatirons, in the video stream without actually filming it live until something different comes along.

This "new" technology is spawning business right and left. Knapp, who co-founded Digital Camera Network, or DCN, with Robert Creamer and Michael Moniz, decided to ride the wave when they saw the GW Hannaway & Associates' digital cam (www.gwha.com) perched atop University Bikes on Pearl Street, which points across the street at Ninth and Pearl.

"While looking at their cam shots on their Web site, we watched a woman stand there rubbing her obviously pregnant belly periodically during the month. She was showing someone her progression on the Web."

A lightbulb went off. "We exclaimed, Think of the implications of this.'" As a result, they decided to put up an exclusive Boulder Cam site that links to thousands of others with this technology. In addition, they're upgrading the technology by developing software to automatically capture images and deal with over-the-air and phone line issues, and are dealing with a local hardware manufacturer to refine redundancies in cam computer processing boards, targeted for release in March.

DCN also recently formed an alliance with Times-Mirror Magazines to develop a network of live Web cams at ski resorts across the country through SkiNet (www.skinet.com). "With SkiNet, you can look at the conditions at any resort in the world real-time," Knapp says.

"It adds value to the ski resorts to know that if you plan a trip, you can see what it's like there.

The logical progression is that while you're on the Web page, you can make reservations, reserve hotel rooms, rent skis. It's enticing for people to do that."

DCN also hosts cams at The Foundry and are trying to get vertical markets -- bars, restaurants, entertainment locales -- to invest in their technology. "We can put all the bars on-line, and you can choose where to go for happy hour or see if your friends are there."

But do people come to a location or purchase a company's services based on a digital cam they saw while cruising the Web?

Sometimes, says Andy Rudoff, chief engineer of GW Hannaway & Associates -- the one with the Ninth and Pearl cam (www.bouldercams.com). His company pioneers computer graphics research and development and offers high-end digital imaging services to businesses. "We originally put the cam in to draw people to our Web site; we've found the camera is very effective for that."

Currently, "we get about 10,000 hits a week." Although it's difficult to quantify how many of those hits translate into sales, Rudoff notes that the more people who visit, the greater the chances they'll remember where they saw it.

For example, "We put a cam into University Bikes (www.ubikes.com) downstairs. They received 20 e-mail messages yesterday from people interested in buying bicycles or accessories that they could see in the store. The e-mail was forwarded by the form we put on their site."

"It's just like any form of marketing. It's all numbers and messages," agrees David Weimer, marketing director of Softronics Inc. in Colorado Springs, a software company that sponsors Pike's Peak Cam (www.softronics.com/peak_cam.html). He believes they have gotten sales based on it, although he does spend time answering "silly questions, like: Why is it a black image when I connect at night?' And, because our clock is set to Mountain Time, people on the East Coast call and tell us our clock is two hours slow."

But he believes it's worth it. "I would recommend it to anyone with a Web site, with the know-how and the dollars to invest in the equipment."

How do you go about getting a digital camera on your site, and how much does it cost?

"There are several ways to go," notes DCN's Knapp. "But 99 percent of the companies who are using digital cams on their sites attach cameras to an Ethernet network, which in turn is connected to the Internet." There are software programs they can use to dial the Internet service provider and download the images to a Web server.

GW Hannaway's Rudoff says that a camera typically costs under $200. "Hardware to digitize the picture is all over the price range, but if you use a Silicon Graphics UNIX machine as a Web server like we do, you get the digitizing hardware with it. Some Macs also come with the ability to digitize video. You can add a video card to just about any brand machine."

Knapp adds that it can cost more than that -- he estimates a range of $1,000 to $6,000 for a laptop, camcorder, and all the residual equipment.

Rudoff points out that "one of the main costs is getting the picture from the camera to the Web server. If you can run a wire to your server, it's free. But if you're too far away to run a wire, you have to make some other arrangement: a phone line or ISDN or even wireless transmission for remote sites will cost you."

Once the camera is "all hooked up, we bill our clients an additional $100 to $200 per month to have the camera going," Rudoff says.