Consider the staggeringly comprehensive Vatican Museum site. With over a thousand images organized by location within the Vatican complex - photographs of the Vatican City, images of the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Stanzas, and over 500 images from the Vatican Museum itself - this site offers astoundingly little additional information. It was akin to walking through the museum without a guide or tourbook. No biographies of the artists, no commentary on the art works, just a remarkable number of images to browse.

Even simple notes would have been helpful; the Raphael painting "The School of Athens" portrays Greek philosophers, but we happen to know that the faces are of Raphael and his contemporaries, an interesting - and unmentioned - tidbit of information. The material available on Vatican City was fun, including a broadcast schedule for Radio Vaticana and historical information on this tiny independent nation within Italy.

The WebMuseum, loosely tied to the Louvre, is doubtless the most visited museum on the Web, with over one million visitors. Again, we found the absence of critical commentary and explanation for the artworks shown disappointing. There are good, if sketchy biographical notes about the artists, and the layout and graphics are a great example of Web design, but it's information on the art itself we failed to find with any frequency. What was available was brief and rather superficial. The notes on La Libertè guidant le peuple, by Delacroix was three sentences long. More typical was simply the title of the piece and its current location, ironically just like an art museum.

Better explanatory text and information can result in a more compelling online museum. The University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology exhibit had only five pieces on display, but each featured one or more views of the work and extensive historical and critical explanation. Also featured was a mini-tour of Egypt. This was much closer to what we sought: an interesting and educational spot tied to a museum where we learned about the pieces on exhibit, perhaps more than we could have learned by visiting the Institute ourselves.

Offering a compelling visual experience, the Treasures of the Czars exhibit at the Florida International Museum was worth a visit. The site included historical information on both the Romanovs and the period during which they ruled Russia plus an interesting Czars Timeline to explore. There was, however, little commentary on the artwork.

The best of the lot was the Library of Congress Exhibit Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture. The online exhibit, from 1993, encompasses a variety of different original manuscripts coupled with extensive critical and historical commentary. It was terrific.

Cyber museums aren't better than the real thing. They could be valuable adjuncts, however, with interactive exhibits including commentary on the style, symbolism and subject of the art and historical information on the artists and time period. But that's still down the road a ways.