PLUGGED IN : NEWS BYTES.

CONNECTION: On the small sites where flying buffs gather, you could catch the sound of tears Friday. As somber accounts of the deadly crash of TWA Flight 800 flooded television, radio and newspapers, computer users flocked on line.

A spider web of slender links - each a piece of the puzzle - began taking shape as the mesh of data that users have come to expect from the World Wide Web. By Friday afternoon the FBI, http://www.fbi.gov/twa.htm had added a link to its home page, featuring a terse outline of Wednesday's crash and appealing to the public for help in determining its cause. It included an e-mail address, nyfbi.com, along with the usual toll-free phone number. For those favoring terrorist theories, an in-depth briefing on shoulder-fired infrared guided missiles was quickly appended to a page sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association home page, http://www.emergency.com/ennday.htm. In CompuServe, a special edition of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine featured an article on how easy it is to detect the telltale signs of explosives on aircraft wreckage, even if the debris has been submerged.

WEB LINKS HEALTHY USERS: Before journeying abroad, it is a good idea to worry about your health, and health information is widely available on the World Wide Web. Shoreland, in Milwaukee, has provided data since 1986 for doctors and other professionals who advise travelers. Last month, it opened a free Web site accessible to the public. Shoreland's Travel Health Online: http://www.tripprep.com

TALK SHOWS ARE EVERYWHERE: A couple of twentysomething Internet gurus hope World Wide Web cruisers will want to get spanqed in the morning. Spanq! made its debut last week on the Web and is being touted as the first daily talk show created exclusively for the Internet. It has a cleverly packaged, three-minute audio update on what's new or interesting on the Web. Giving Spanq! its punch are the two slightly irreverent hipsters who are hosts of the show: Trip Anchor and Uncle Dutch.

Spanq! is designed so you can see the Web sites you're hearing about while the show is going. There's also links to the pages, but none of the daily episodes are archived - they're here today, gone tomorrow. You can find Spanq! on the Net at: http://www.spanq.com. You'll need RealAudio software, which you can download free from the site.

CYBER TRAVEL: The beauty and splendor that fills the pages of National Geographic magazine now can be found on the Web. After a few start-up glitches, National Geographic Online is running strong, taking visitors around the world through the lenses of its world-famous photographers.You can find the site at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com.

TAKE NOTE SMALL BUSINESSES: The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Angeles Regional Technology Allianca (LARTA) are presenting a one-day proposal writing workshop for small businesses to apply for research grants provided by ``Small Business Innovative Research'' and ``Small Business Technology Transfer'' on July 23 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Guest Suites, 1701 Fourth St., Santa Monica. For additional information call [phone].