Note: Many of the URL's provided in this and other columns have changed or disappeared in the decade since this column was written. They are left intact in these columns to preserve the original content.

I recently downloaded the new NetScape 4.0 Communicator integrated suite of applications, which includes a cool new browser, a great integrated email/news client, a built-in Web page editor, a teleconferencing client and a time-travel module which inexplicably only transports you two minutes back in time. I'm sure that the next time I'm at a cocktail party and need a snappy comeback line, this module could come in handy.

While installing the trim, 12-megabyte compressed files, I was offered a chance to conveniently subscribe to a bunch of "Push Technology" sources for information. I chose to accept the easy offer. Big mistake. I've gone from getting maybe two dozen pieces of email a day to well over 100, with most of the new ones consisting of fact-and-URL-filled newsletters, newspapers, Electronic Magazines (E-Zines), and my personal favorite: the current weather in my ZIP code. That's right, if I'm feeling too lazy to look out the window to actually see the weather, I can read it right from the email/web page "pushed" to me every day. There must be a message here somewhere, but I don't think I've found the URL for it yet.

I first wrote about "Push Technology" in early 1996 when I discussed the PointCast Network, one of the first of a new breed of software technology vendors with software for the extremely complacent. "Push Technology" allows you to fill-in a personal profile, then "tailors" the information to your individual needs, then crushes you under the weight and bandwidth of delivering it to your in-basket or screen-saver. In the case of PointCast, their product functions as a screen-saver and pushes your data to you on a pre-defined - and voluntary - schedule. The others tend to be more sporadic, and employ email as the principal delivery mechanism.

So if you judge your popularity by the number of emails you receive, you'll love this new techno-trend. If, on the other hand, you have less than roughly 22 hours per day to read your email, then be careful in what you sign up for, because it's easy to sign up in one convenient place, but unsubscribing must be done on an individual basis. Trust me, I know. I didn't even remember signing up for The Soy Farmers Field Gazette (Motto: "We Can Make It Taste Like Chicken").

This technology has provided the motivation for me to step up my use of email-filtering rules, which is also a feature conveniently bundled into the new NetScape "Messenger" email client. I wrote about mail-filters a while back in the context of filtering "spams" right into my digital waste-basket. While the filtering rules of Messenger are extremely intuitive and powerful, there's not even a remote chance of staying ahead of the spammers. A few days ago, for example, I received an email from someone with the subject of "Life Saving Technologies". Sounds good. I'll bite. Two paragraphs into the message, after a tremendous lead-in about the need for establishing adequate security procedures for family and loved-ones, I discovered that the message was a sales pitch for motor oil. Really. This particular motor oil, it said, could actually save lives. [delete]

But I digress. Back in the Middle Ages of the Internet (November 1995-February 1996) you actually had to go through the tedious process of using your cunning, tenacity and skill at searching the Web for information. This process was apparently the basis of "Pull Technology" - you had to go fetch it. Today, you can just sit back and wait for it to be "pushed" to you. And with the ability for email to now have a web browser interface, your email can contain pictures, sounds, and links to other pages, just like in a Web page.

Just think of the possibilities here, say, for Bill Gates to make his next Trillion dollars: When Micro$oft is ready to ship "BloatWare 97", for instance, they can merely "push" it to your machine, then "pull" the payment right out of your Micro$oft Money personal finance manager. Didn't you wonder why, when you installed it, there was already a vendor item setup for Micro$oft?

Today's hot media topic is "the battle for your desktop". This fight is alledgedly being waged between archrivals Micro$oft and NetScape as to who you will align with for your personal desktop interface. While the feature-for-feature war rages on, let us not forget that Internet Explorer is bundled ("pushed") with each and every copy of Windows 95/97/whatever, and will in time be able to claim dominance just by volume alone. To further the proof that Micro$oft will eventually rule the world, I read recently that Windows NT outsold Unix platforms in 1996 for the first time. Business, it seems, is moving to NT.

So, if you'll excuse me now, I'm going to see what happens when I click on the Time Travel module a few thousand times. I'll get back to you when I hit 20 again.

 

Web Supplemental

The following article came through push technology to me today from the Closing Bell Internet Daily for Friday, Mar 14, 1997:

Shove will come to push

"Push" technology is the buzzword at Spring Internet World '97. But there will be limits. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) it's likely that some of this year's "pushy" exhibitors will not be on the floor next year. IDC believes the keys to short term success in the push market will include: a business (as opposed to a consumer) focus; the capability to distribute software, and access to capital. IDC research indicates this market will take some time to develop. On the content services side, there is room for perhaps only one or two market leaders. The research firm concludes Pointcast has pioneered this territory and its model of content aggregation has found a niche within the business strategies of both content providers and platform vendors such as Lotus and Microsoft.

My next article is about Spring Internet World '97.

See you next issue.

Jon Sisk
www.jes.com

Original article for Computing News & Review, February, 1997

Copyright © 1996 Jonathan E. Sisk.