'BIG BROTHER' WEB SITE TOPS INTERNET HIT LIST.

Byline: Robert Monroe Staff Writer

New Web site ratings for July show that bigbrother2000.com, the official site of the reality TV show nearing its finale, is the hottest new Web site.

But the ratings also show that a totally unrelated site based in Studio City, bigbrother.com, basked in the reflected light as viewers looking for the site related to the CBS show apparently found the other site on accident.

``That's what you'd assume is happening. I've done that myself,'' said Mary Helen Trent, spokeswoman for measurement service Media Metrix, which said the confusion illustrates the importance of the relationship between domain names and offline consumer brands.

Bigbrother2000.com, which redirects viewers to an official site operated by America Online, recorded 4.25 million unique user hits in July, ranking it first among Web sites appearing in Media Metrix's audience rating survey for the first time. Bigbrother.com, which allows visitors to view people who voluntarily train Web cameras on themselves, recorded 1.05 million hits, ranking it in seventh place.

A site called bigfatbaby.com, which allows people to send e-mail greetings to family and friends, ranked second with 2 million hits. Sites such as gaspricewatch.com, which tells people which gas station in their area is cheapest, rounded out the top 10, according to results released Wednesday.

Domain name registry Network Solutions lists bigbrother.com's operators as being based in Studio City, though attempts to reach them were unsuccessful. The site specifies that it is not related to the CBS show although the action of ``Big Brother'' is set at a Studio City house.

The CBS program ``Big Brother'' placed 10 contestants in a Studio City house. Contestants nominate other house guests for banishment weekly. Despite the Web site's popularity, ratings for the show itself have been only moderately better than what CBS typically achieves with summer reruns, falling short of the network's other summer reality-based show ``Survivor.'' The final ``Big Brother'' episode is scheduled to air Sept. 30.

AOL spokeswoman Jennifer Rankin said the show's producers picked the Web site name after discovering the domain name bigbrother.com was already taken. She added it is unclear whether the site would remain operational when the show ends Sept. 30.

``This is really the first time we've done something like this, develop a companion site to a television show,'' she said.

Trent said the bigbrother2000.com site benefits from affiliation with the television show in a way most sites cannot.

``The fact that the show is happening on TV, that's really the driver behind the traffic behind that,'' she said. `` `Big Brother' has almost become a brand name in the last couple months.''