Subject: Push Technology: What is it and how it is used on the Net now.
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PUSH! : Are Your Web Browsing Days Over?
Patrick Crispen, InterNIC Information and Education Services
Even before the recent announcement that
Intermind (http://www.intermind.com/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html) may soon
receive the patent rights to the "channel
communications" portion of push technology,
push technology has been one of the hottest
topics on the Internet. But what exactly is
"push technology" and can it make Web browsing
as we know it obsolete?
Imagine that the Internet is a giant collection of magazines. There
are two ways that you can find and receive only those magazines that
contain information on the topics that interest you. You can go to
the magazine stand in person and physically search through pile
after pile of magazines that don't interest you just to find the few
that do, or you can bypass the magazine stand altogether, subscribe
to a couple of magazines, and have those magazines delivered
directly to your mailbox.
Push technology is very much like a free version of
magazine home delivery. Simply put, push technology automatically
delivers information through channels which are delivered directly
to your desktop throughout the day. Think of channels as magazines;
they can contain news, sports scores, stock information, and even
links to other places on the Internet where you can find more
information on a particular topic. According to Drummond Reed, the
co-founder of Intermind, "with client-pull technologies like the
Web, you have to actively go out and get the information that you
are looking for. With push technology, the information that you want
is automatically delivered to you. Push is much more proactive."
How does push technology work? Most push technology content
providers require you to give them a few pieces of personal
information, for example, where you live, the names of your favorite
sports teams, what stocks you follow, and other areas of interest.
The push content provider then enters this information into a
"server-side" database (a "server side" database is a database that
is kept on one of the push content provider's computers, or
"servers"). The push content provider then uses this database to
determine what information you might be interested in and when they
should send that information to you.
Most businesses already use push technology and don't know it.
Through e-mail, probably the most widely used push technology
around, businesses keep in contact with their customers, telling
them about sales, important events, upgrades, and anything else that
might be relevant. Businesses can create customer e-mail lists using
nothing more than a simple e-mail program like Eudora or P-Mail, or
they can use large, commercial mailing list manager programs like
L-Soft's LISTSERV (http://www.lsoft.com/com/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html).
One of the innovators in the new generation of push
technology is PointCast (http://www.pointcast.com/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html).
Launched in February of 1996, the PointCast Network is a free,
advertiser-supported information browser and screen-saver that
provides up-to-the-minute national and international news, stock
information, industry updates, weather, and sports scores. Once you
download PointCast's free software, PointCast's running ticker will
provide you with the latest stock quotes and sports scores, and its
news content can be updated several times a day.
Best of all, PointCast allows you to completely customize their
service to show only the information that interests you. You can
even choose how often PointCast updates its news content, and you
are given the opportunity to receive news from a variety of major
sources, including CNN (and the other news organizations in the
Time/Warner family), Reuters, The New York Times, Wired, and ZDNet.
After Dark (http://www.afterdark.com/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html), creator of the
popular "flying toasters" screen saver, also offers a free
push technology software package called "After Dark Online." Much
like the PointCast Network, After Dark Online is a collection of
customizable screen savers that display the latest news and
information from news organizations including Sports Illustrated
Online, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and E! Online.
BackWeb (http://www.backweb.com/m/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html) also pushes the latest
news and information to your desktop, but unlike PointCast
and After Dark Online, BackWeb's free software can also push
multimedia audio/video files and software updates directly to your
hard drive. Several major software manufacturers, including the
Internet Explorer division of Microsoft and anti-virus software
manufacturer McAffee, now offer BackWeb channels which automatically
tell you when a new version of their software is available and
automatically downloads that update to your computer.
Like PointCast and After Dark Online, BackWeb can display its news
and information as a screen saver. One of BackWeb's unique features,
however, is that instead of having a scrolling news ticker, BackWeb
uses "InfoFlashes," small, animated graphics that display the latest
news in an unused area of your desktop or at the bottom of your
screen. BackWeb is also ideal for intranets (internal, corporate
networks) because, thanks to BackWeb's administration and
connectivity features, it allows anyone on your internal network who
has a browser to push content to rest of your company.
Marimba's Castanet (http://www.marimba.com/m/nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html) is an example of how
Java can be used in push technology to automatically distribute,
manage, and update network applications and information
across different platforms and networks. Recently Castanet
was expanded with the addition of Castanet Update Now. It manages
both Java and non-Java languages. Each of Castanet's channels are
individual applications developed in the most popular development
languages such as C, C++ and Microsoft's Visual Basic that are
pushed to your computer. These applications, which are developed by
content providers around the world, can do pretty much everything
from showing you the latest headlines to downloading the latest
software on your company's network.
Not all examples of push technology require you to download special
software, though. InfoBeat (http://www.infobeat.com//nam/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html) is a free,
customizable news service that delivers its content to you via
e-mail (either in plain ASCII format, or in HTML for people who use
Netscape 3.0+, HotMail, RocketMail, or WebTV as their e-mail
reader). InfoBeat has seven sections - finance, sports,
entertainment, news, snow reports, weather, and reminders - and you
get to choose the information that you want and when you want to
receive it.
One of the best and most popular examples of e-mail based push
technology is 'Netscapes' "In-Box direct"
(http://form.netscape.com/ibd/uvla//3340/ources/plrc.html.html). If you have a POP3 account (an
e-mail account that lets you download your e-mail onto your own
computer and then read that mail off-line) and if you use Netscape
3.0 or later to send and receive e-mail, you can use In-Box direct
to sign up for free news services that will be pushed to your e-mail
box every day. In effect, each of these news services will e-mail
you a Web page, complete with graphics and working links that you
can view in Netscape's mail program. Current In-Box Direct content
providers include CNN, The New York Times, USA Today, People
Magazine, TV Guide, Business Week, National Geographic, CNET, and
The Financial Times (London).
The newest frontier of push technology, however, is the Web
browser front, with both Netscape Communicator and
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 currently offering built-in push
technology in their latest Web browsers. Both Netscape and Microsoft
support "Web casting," a technology which enables you to subscribe
to certain information channels which are then pushed to your
computer throughout the day. Because these information channels are
pushed directly to your desktop, you no longer have to surf the
Internet for information that interests you. Nor do you even have to
be connected to the Internet when you view these channels (the
channels are pushed to you when you are connected to the Internet,
and then you are free to browse these channels off-line).
What does the future of push technology hold? According to
Drummond Reed, "the first generation of push technology is only the
tip of the iceberg." Push is currently being used as an efficient
means to deliver information. Reed sees a future, however, where
push technology will "fundamentally be a solution to information
overload."
Reed believes that the current problem lies with having to
personally filter the information that we encounter on the Internet.
"You currently do all of the filtering yourself," he says. However
he also notes that the current version of push has only delivered
more information without adding more control. According to Reed, the
next generation of push technology will offer "intelligent channels
with an evolving topic list" that will give the user complete
control over the entire information stream.
Instead of having customers visit a corporate Web site only to have
to hunt for relevant information, push technology holds the
promise of allowing businesses to push that relevant
information directly to the customer. The end result is that the
customer may be able to bypass the Web altogether.
Can businesses take advantage of this technology today? Absolutely!
Just contact one of the current push technology content providers -
PointCast, After Dark Online, BackWeb, Marimba, InfoBeat, Netscape,
or Microsoft - and ask them how their product can help you meet your
company's goals.
The current generation of push technology automatically delivers
information - news, stock quotes, sports scores, advertising - to
your desktop. With the amount of information on the Internet growing
exponentially every day, and with time being the scarce commodity
that it is, push technology has the potential to radically change
the way that everyone uses the Internet.
Will push technology supplant Web browsing, though? Only time will
tell.
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