More than 50 commercials appeared during Super Bowl XL on Sunday, but instead of vanishing into the ether as they once did, many have already found a second life online, writes the New York Times. This year, many have been officially made available through streaming video online - for watching, forwarding, adding to personal web pages, and even downloading to video iPods. And the post-game ad buzz is taking the hurt off the estimated $2.5 million price tag for each 30-second ad.

Among those that have put up videos of Super Bowl commercials are AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo and ifilm.com, as well as sites run by the National Football League and media outlets such as ESPN, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

The websites of Super Bowl advertisers such as FedEx, Ford, the Bud Light and Budweiser brands, and GM's Cadillac and Hummer brands, have posted ads - and some have created microsites for the commercials.

Intelliseek chief marketing officer Pete Blackshaw is quoted as saying the microsites are the equivalent of using TiVo. "It's about consuming advertising at your own pace, and the microsites are almost like portals for watching ads."