Site competing to be home for fast-growing group on Web By Madeline Baro Diaz of Knight Ridder Newspapers

While some people spent much Internet time over the past few months discussing who would be the next person kicked off "Survivor" Island, people on BET.com's forums were tackling weightier implications of reality- based -shows: how they portray black contestants.    "Whenever I watch these shows I'm just waiting to see when the brother is going to snap and get kicked off," one message read.    "I don't feel that the producers of these shows are trying to stereotype racial issues and how African Americans relate to whites," another person wrote.    Blacks are rapidly going online and sites such asBET.com are trying to lure those users by creating places on the Internet specifically aimed at them.    The 7-month-old BET.com, part of the media empire that includes Black Entertainment Television, is one of the two top blackoriented Web sites, along with year-old BlackPlanet.com. Both average about 300,000 unique visitors a month, according to sampling by Media Metrix, which tracks Web traffic. America Online and Microsoft sites, in contrast, have more than 50 million unique visitors a month.    BlackPlanet.com is one of the "stickiest" sites around, however, with an average of 142.9 minutes spent per visitor per month on the site, according to Media Metrix. That puts it in fourth place overall. BET.com visitors spend an average of 15.6 minutes each month.    Bet.com offers news, forums, chat and email and tries to project an intellectual vibe appealing to middle Class professionals. BlackPlanet.com offers similar features but is "less like a library and more like a cafe," says executive director Omar Wasow.    BlackPlanet.com, which requires users to register, is known for its meat-market atmosphere, in which people comeup with naughty user names. Many of the visitors are searching for an online hookup. Wasow point out that chat rooms on other Internet services, such as America Online, also tend to be flirtatious. And, in fact, there's also a contingent of BlackPlanet users who put up religious homepages and participate in religion centered chats. Others set up an identity on BlackPlanet in an attempt to network.    According to Wasow, one of BlackPlanet's big contributions has been putting the power of the Internet in the hands of black Web surfers. Everyone who joins BlackPlanet gets a home page, which can be as sophisticated as its owner makes it.    "BlackPlanet has sort of become a base camp for African-Americans to explore the whole Web," Wasow says. Ekaterina Walsh, senior analyst for Forrester Research, a technology research company, says race is not the major factor in determining how people use the Internet.    Rather, the user's age, income, education and optimism about technology more often shape their choices. Older people, regardless of race, might use the Internet just to send email, while younger people of all races are more likely to be more active, surfing and creating Web sites and using the Internet for other purposes.    WALSH PREDICTS that sites banking on a particular ethnic group, such as BlackPlanet.com, are not going to be very successful. She thinks Bet.com has a better chance of making it because it has an established name and identity away from the Web.    "BET is going to be much more successful because it has this very established legacy," she said.    Blacks are more likely than other groups to seek health and career information online, Walsh said. "They don't need a black portal to do that," she said. "They can go to a health site that is trusted in that area." Jehucal Forbes, 21, a Broward Community College sophomore in Fort Lauderdale, spends at least part of every day logged into BlackPlanet.com. He says he switched to BlackPlanet from Hotmail because of the features it offered.    "You can make your own page, design your own page. You can chat with more people," he said. While neither BET.com nor BlackPlanet.com has turned a profit, executives for both sites say they're on their way to profitability. BlackPlanet.com and BET.com are convinced that one black- oriented Web site will dominate.    "I think there's a lot of pressure to be the definitive Web site," Wasow said. "like the broader Web, there will be one or two dominant [black] sites and then a lot of niche sites."    Traditional media companies such as BET "don't really get how you succeed on the Web," Wasow said. BET.com's vice president of content development, Retha Hill, said having the traditional media company backing the site is going to be the key to success. "I think we are the definitive African-American Web site," Hill said. "We know there will be No. 1 and then down the road back behind the block will be No. 2." Web sites for blacks take off A Knight-Ridder Newspaper. report Here's a look at some of the major black-oriented Web sites: - www.blackplanetcom - Published by Community Connect, this Web portal requires free registration; offers e-mail, articles, games and other fea-tures; and is popular as an online socializing spot. - www.bet.com - This site is "the black AOL" according to vice president of content development Retha Hill. Part of the media company that in-cludes Black Entertainment Television, this site offers onestop shopping including e-mail. forums, chat, articles and auctions. Its target audience is mid-dle-class black America. - www.africana.corn- This site was founded by a trio of educators, most notably Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates. Understandably, its articles and reviews tend toward the thought-provoking and intellectual. The site was recently acquired by Time Warner. - www.netnoir.com - A veteran of black online se viccs, America Online-backed NetNoir recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. In addition to articles, chat, email, games and shopping, this Internet portal includes a "Gospel Chapel" section with features on gospel music and other Christian-themed features. - www.bIackvoices.com - Another Internet veteran, this virtual community launched as part of America OnVne in 1995 and is now a separate company under media company Tribune. BlackVoicescom offers forums, news and chat, plus a career section that includes a virtual job fair and chats with recruiters. For more information, go to www.AsianAvenue.com; www.BlackPlanet.com; www.MiGente.com.