In the age of Facebook and Twitter, it was perhaps inevitable that live Webstreaming funerals would be next.

It is no surprise that the deaths of celebrities are promoted as international Web events. But now the once-private funerals and memorials of less-noted citizens are also going online.

Several software companies have created easy-to-use programs to help funeral homes cater to bereaved families. FuneralOne, a one-stop shop for online memorials that is based in St. Clair, Michigan, saw the number of funeral homes offering Webcasts increase to 1,053 in 2010, from 126 in 2008 (it also sells digital tribute DVDs).

During that same period, Event by Wire, in Half Moon Bay, California, watched the number of funeral homes live-streaming services jump to 300 from 80. And in January, the Service Corporation International in Houston, which owns 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries, said it was conducting a pilot Webcasting program at 16 of its funeral homes.

Traveling to funerals was once an important family rite, but with greater secularity and a mobile population, watching a funeral online can seem better than not going at all. Social media, too, have redrawn the communal barriers of what is acceptable.

“We are in a YouTube society now,” said H. Joseph Joachim IV, Funeral- One’s founder. “People are living more than ever online.”

On January 11, more than 7,000 people watched the Santa Ana, California, funeral of Debbie Friedman, a singer whose music combined Jewish text with folk rhythm. It was seen on Ustream, a Web video service, with more than 20,000 viewing it on-demand in following days.

“We intended to watch a few minutes, but ended up watching almost the whole thing,” said Noa Kushner, a rabbi in San Anselmo, California, and a fan of Ms. Friedman’s music. “I was so moved.”

Other Webcasts are more obscure, but no less appreciated. A friend of Ronald Rich, a volunteer firefighter in Wallace, North Carolina, recently died unexpectedly. When a snowstorm threatened to close roads, making it impossible for him to attend the funeral, he watched the service online. “It was comforting to me,” he said .

The technology to put funerals online was slow to catch on with an understandably sensitive industry. Some funeral directors do not want to replace a communal human experience with a solitary digital one, said John Reed, a past president of the National Funeral Directors Association. Others worry that if the quality of the video is poor, it will reflect badly on the funeral home.

And the conversation about whether to stream a funeral online can be awkward. Funeral directors are conservative, Mr. Reed said; privacy is paramount.

Still, some offer the service free, while others charge $100 to $300. If a family wants the service to be private, those invited get a password that allows access.

Not all funeral attendees want their images captured online. Irene Dahl, an owner of Dahl Funeral Chapel in Bozeman, Montana, said a young man went to a funeral last year dressed as a woman and asked not to be filmed. “He did not want his mother to know,” Ms. Dahl said. She said that nearly one-third of the ceremonies arranged by her funeral home last year - about 60 - were streamed live .

Russell Witek, the 14-year-old son of Karen Witek of Geneva, Illinois, died of a brain tumor in 2009. The Conley Funeral Home in nearby Elburn offered to stream the funeral live. “We said, ‘Why not?’ ”

Ms. Witek said. Her brother-in-law was in the Middle East. Russell’s home nurse was away . Ms. Witek had met friends on social media sites, including a patient-care support group, and they could not attend, either. The funeral home said 186 people watched the funeral live, with another 511 watching on-demand. Ms. Witek couldn’t bring herself to view it .

But for William Uzenski, the father of Nicholas Uzenski, a Marine serving in Afghanistan who was killed on January 11, 2010, live Web-streaming has provided much comfort. Mr. Uzenski said he wanted Nicholas’s military colleagues in Afghanistan to be able to watch the funeral. So Ms. Dahl arranged it through a military liaison.

The funeral was viewed in 80 cities and 4 countries, including Afghanistan.

“I do watch it again sometimes,” Mr. Uzenski said. “I don’t know why, but I guess it’s healing.”


By LAURA M. HOLSON