THE "AMERICAN IDOL" PHENOMENON HAS BEEN TRANSPLANTED ITSELF ONTO THE INTERNET: The Web series and site "Total Pop Star" offers aspiring singers exposure and a chance at stardom.

Contestants create a profile and upload a video of themselves singing. Songs can be any genre, and contestants must be at least 13 years old. Full contest rules are posted on the site.

To advance to the finalist level, they need to get 1,000 fan votes.

The judges are singer Deborah Gibson, actor/singer Joey Lawrence and music and film producer Andrew Van Slee.

Prizes include a recording contract and cash. The winner will be announced in June; entry deadline is May 18.

Viewers can watch episodes of the weekly series online or check out archived clips submitted by contestants.

The Total Pop Star site features judges' picks, recent uploads and best-of and worst-of collections.

www.totalpopstar.com

WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TREK IT'S BEEN FOR WILLIAM SHATNER, who has been playing the role of Priceline.com spokesperson longer than that of the TV version of Captain Kirk. It's the 10th anniversary of the online travel company's ad campaign featuring Shatner.

The former "Star Trek" star was chosen for the role because he's recognized by many generations of viewers. And once they saw his "Bust A Move" interpretation, they probably never forgot the commercial.

In the latest Priceline spots, he plays The Negotiator, a superhero going to bat for the consumer.

www.priceline.com

RAPPER MC HAMMER IS CRAFTING A COMEBACK CAREER IN NEW MEDIA. He's launching a new dance video site called DanceJam, which is scheduled to debut this month.

DanceJam is a YouTube-like site for sharing and watching dance videos, which are among the most popular on the video sharing scene.

www.dancejam.com

A NEW FREE INTERNET RADIO SERVICE CALLED JANGO HAS LAUNCHED A BETA VERSION.

Jango tailors channels to individual musical tastes in several ways: Listeners can choose a station by genre -- rock, pop, rap/hip-hop, R&B/soul, electronica and country -- or create playlists based on favorite artists.

The site also has charts listing most popular and fastest-rising songs. Spotlights on featured artists in different genres offer detailed biographical sketches. Coming in the future to this section -- album listings and videos.

www.jango.com

WHETHER YOU'RE AN OENOPHILE OR ARE JUST GETTING YOUR FEET WET IN THE WORLD OF WINES, Wine News Review is a good place to start your research.

The site's search feature lets users pick a a specific kind of wine and narrow it to a specific price range. Or one can search red, white or organic wines.

The search goes through articles by both mainstream wine writers and bloggers and yields a list of reviews and recommendations from across the country.

A Google map on the site leads users to wine bars and shops in a specific geographic area.

winenewsreview.com