News In Brief

NO STAYING POWER?

As a TV personality, Kathie Lee Gifford has a loyal following, to be sure. The largest percentage of respondents to a new survey, however, evidently are not among them. A poll commissioned by TV Guide asked a randomly selected sample of people who among a list of celebrities they thought would first be kicked off the island in the wildly popular CBS series "Survivor." The easy winner: Kathie Lee. The other hypothetical contestants were talk-show host Regis Philbin, comic Tom Green, the pro wrestler known as The Rock, the cast of "Friends," and - the runner-up - Rosie O'Donnell.

THEY GO GREAT ON CEREAL

Speaking of islands, the armed forces of Taiwan are being enlisted for a new mission - and it has nothing to do with any threat from mainland China. It seems banana production has outstripped exports, glutting the market and cutting prices paid to growers. So the Council of Agriculture is asking the troops to help by - right - eating more of the yellow fruit.

Fastest-growing e-commerce sites - yes, there are some

Lately, analysts have been casting doubt on the viability of e-commerce sites, but a recent report by Nielsen/NetRatings suggests it's not time to write them off just yet. In the service's tabulation of the fast-growing Web sites among home users for May, at least four of the top 10 domains are oriented toward e-commerce. Music also scored well: Planet of Music clinched the top slot, with 2.5 million visitors, and napster.com - whose clashes with copyright holders have generated controversy - was No. 10. To qualify, Web sites had to have a minimum unique audience of 500,000 in April. The May rankings, according to growth percentage:

1. planetofmusic.com 339.8%

2. nextcard.com 177.9%

3. webtrendslive.com 107.4%

4. firstname.com 95.7%

5. allhealth.com 94.2%

6. shopnow.com 93.7%

7. jackpot.com 92.3%

8. victoriassecret.com 82.2%

9. ourhouse.com 77.4%

10. napster.com 77.2%

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