The Internet is not only changing the way we live but also, it seems, the way we die. Death is the latest trend on the Net as a procession of new websites, that cater for everything from buying coffins to building a video Web cast of granny's last moments, arrive in cyberspace.

The online funeral services industry is, of course, part of the overall trend to move bricks and mortar business to the Internet. However it has spawned some new services that have, until now, been unavailable.

Take memorial.com, for example. Here bereaved relatives can have a virtual memorial web page built in cyberspace for their loved ones. Another site called ancestraltree.com offers to entomb the cremated remains in the roots of a Bonsai tree (a miniaturised tree or living work of art such as an oak that can live for hundreds of years). This niche service can flourish online because it can attract customers worldwide.

"When I die my children will have to water me every day," said Kelly Clements, founder and chief executive of ancestraltree.com, who got the idea while passing an empty cemetery near San Francisco. "When they move they can take me with them."

Another site, funeral.com is currently focused on offering services to undertakers rather than the general public. Compared to their non-virtual equivalents, however, online funeral services sites are still in their infancy.

The three most prominent web sites, funeral.com, memorial.com and obituary.com, are in perrelease mode. But with nearly 2.5 million deaths per year in the US, and the funeral business turning over more than $13.1 billion (€12.87 million), these sites are sure to grow.

Indeed, the funeral industry is undergoing many changes at present. Like most industries it's consolidating as large funeral services companies such as Loewen Group, Service Corp and Stewart Enterprises buy up small-town funeral homes on the one hand and franchise out funeral services, McDonalds-style, on the other. Now, 15 per cent of the US's 23,000 funeral homes are under the umbrella of three companies.

"The larger funeral services companies have not really got in on the online game yet," said Mr Jeff Smith, founder and chief executive of memorial.com. "For us the endgame is to create a partnership with one of these companies.

That's as important as raising venture capital."

Memorial.com works something like this: when the bereaved relative is buying a funeral the undertaker will offer memorial.com as an option. They will submit video, photographs, text and of course, a fee. The undertaker will Fedex these items to memorial.com who will build the web page and give the Web page address to the bereaved.

Nice plan and a truly great service, but how do you make money? asks Mr Mark Mooradian, group director of content services at research firm Jupiter Communications.

"It's hardly appropriate to advertise and there is so much free web space available that I doubt that people will be willing to pay for the service," he said.

According to memorial.com, the service will offer some advertising but it will also offer links to other sites such as 1800 Flowers, an online flower store, as well as sites that offer estate planning, insurance, and Mass or memorial cards.

"The idea here is to offer family plots in cyberspace," said Smith. "Today many families are geographically dispersed, so it's often difficult for relatives to visit the grave."

Furthermore, memorial.com family plots can be linked to other sites such as heritage Internet offerings. According to Smith there is a great deal more on offer than some jerky video footage of the deceased. "Just imagine how interesting it would be to see your ancestors' baby pictures or a video of their wedding and photographs of where they lived," he said. "Well the same thing will be of interest to your descendants."

But the memorial offerings don't stop there. For pet lovers there is petmemorial.com, a free Web service where people can post pictures and tributes to pets who have departed for happy hunting grounds in the sky. One such tribute reads "Nip was the sweetest little cat. He was only one month old when he was struck by lightning on November 7th 1998".

To many, online grieving may seem like an oddity that only the US would embrace, but in today's world online communities are beginning to play a similar role as the village did in days gone by. People travel virtually to buy goods, exchange gossip and see friends, so why not visit the online village cemetery while you're there.

As well as this, planning and buying a funeral online may be a more attractive proposition to today's techno-friendly consumer. For instance, in California people are much more likely to go to the Internet rather than the Yellow Pages to find a business listing. Furthermore, in grief some people may feel more comfortable dealing with a computer terminal than an undertaker, according to Funeral.com founder and chief executive Mr Chris Brown.

Of course, you still need undertakers, he added. After all, someone has to embalm or even cremate the body as well as take care of the details such as the death certificates.

Brown believes that his site will augment the services offered by the small-town funeral home rather than replace them. "Our aim is to become the Yahoo of the funeral services," said Brown. "When people think of death and dying they will come to us but we do not necessarily have to sell anything - rather, we intend to become a nationwide resource where people go to find the service they want in the location they want it."

In the meantime, funeral.com is focused on providing a resource for the funeral industry rather than for the average grave stonebuying punter. The site offers resources for buying urns and caskets, links to care groups and advertisements for Mortuary Management magazine.

There is even an undertaker's chat group where a woman asks for advice on how to cope with harassment in the workplace and a funeral home manager with the online nickname of "digger77" offers advice.

Still, taking care of the deceased should involve a little more than logging-on and filling out a half a dozen e-mail forms. As funeral.com's motto suggests: "Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness, the tender mercies of its people, their loyalty to high ideals, and their regard for the laws of the land" - Gladstone.

Links: http://www.funeral.com/; http://www.ancestraltree.com/; http://www.memorial.com/; http://www.obituary.com/

Niall McKay can be reached at niall@niall.org