"These memorial sites pack some strong emotions; even at "thumbnail" size, the pictures have much more impact than simply reading a list of names. But if you want to have your heart not just touched but ripped apart, visit the Moving Tributes section of Legacy.com, a Web business that hopes to become a national online clearinghouse for obituaries. (It also sells flowers, care baskets and commemorative pendants. If building a business from death notices seems unseemly, remember that newspapers have been charging tidy sums to publish obits for many decades.)

... Moving Tributes is a free service that allows families and friends of dead soldiers to create short multimedia memorials. The process is similar to that on photo-sharing sites; users upload pictures and pick a soundtrack. The seven pieces of music supplied by the site are all of the traditional patriotic variety: "Torch of Freedom," "Battle Hymn of the Republic." But you can also narrate a personal remembrance and use that as the background, and the narrations are frequently both folksy and heartfelt.

As a result, at Moving Tributes, you see not just formal soldier portraits but, in effect, the living-room photo albums of lives ended early:

What a break from the slick hipness so many Web pages strive to deliver.

And since Americans are divided about the war, people will surely bring those opinions with them when looking at these online tributes. The war's supporters will see noble and necessary service; opponents will see an appalling waste of life.

Because the Internet is a global phenomenon, and because not only Americans and not only military troops are dying in Iraq, similar memorial pages have cropped up for the conflict's other victims...

The Guardian newspaper in England, for example, has a site for Iraqi civilians...

No one knows how long these tribute pages will be around. Web sites tend to come and go, and while there are some people in technology who are beginning to think about the problem of archiving today's Internet for future generations, there is always the chance these sites will end up a decade or two hence as dead bits on a hard drive lost in some dusty warehouse.

Families intent on preserving a Web tribute for their children's children should print it out and put it in a scrapbook. The Web is best at amplifying and articulating current concerns and preoccupations...before moving on to the next thing."

Source: Wall Street Journal