These may not be the best of times for the new economy but there are some occasional flashes of light amid the gloom. One of the most difficult issues for the apostles of technology has been persuading the rest of us about the value of the Internet.

Forget about all the hardware, software and telecoms technology advances. Unless the public can somehow be persuaded of the longterm value of the online world as an intrinsic part of their daily lives, technology will only breed white elephants.

Encouraging, then, to see rewarded the efforts of a group of Mormons who have put online the details of those arriving in the United States through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924. The Mormons were chosen for the task because of their experience putting together their own landmark genealogy site.

The value of their efforts has been demonstrated by the fact that www.ellisislandrecords.org has been swamped by visitors since it opened. Such is the demand that the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation which runs the website has quadrupled the server memory since the project opened and still only one in seven visitors succeeds in getting through.

Just goes to show that success on the Web is much like success in the Old Economy - the product of sound ideas and hard work.