Technologies That Time Forgot: Push

Push sounded like an advertiser's dream. The whole movement - very much in the ascendancy in 1996/97 - revolved around the idea of 'pushing' content to desktops once a user is logged on to the internet. Why rely on users 'pulling' information from sites? Instead, flog any message to any desktop in any part of the world at any time. Simple.

Only it wasn't simple. It was a case of too much hype, little demand and bottlenecks, big bottlenecks.

The internet wasn't as developed as it is now. Pipes weren't fat enough to cope with the constant flow of information clogging up many a corporate network. This famously happened at HP in Palo Alto, although the company hasn't always been forthcoming in talking about its employees' use of its infrastructure. Push got the shove.

Synonymous with push is a company called Pointcast. To quote the famous line, don't look for them, they're not there anymore. (Bought by Infogate (www.infogate.com) in 1999.) All you need to know is that it was hot property from 1995 until the end of 1998, attracting the attention of a raft of communications giants including Bell Atlantic.

It aimed to become the primary channel for tailored information to be sent to desktops and other clients. At its height News Corp offered to buy the company out for $300m. Murdoch's organisation was rebuffed, such was Pointcast's confidence.

The problem with push was that no one knew what to do with it. It was hip, cool and happening - one of the first mass web applications - but it wasn't essential. Without a clear goal developers were unsure of its point so failed to develop heaps of applications - advertisers and moneymen were rumbled.

But before we rush headlong to dismiss the mis-timed technology, let's take a look at Backweb. Remember that Californian company? It used to be a headliner with Marimba and Pointcast. But in May it announced a deal with IBM to integrate its push technology with Big Blue's CRM products.

The company has also released the Push Application Server, a platform that enables users to build push applications to send information to any device, from PC to mobile phone. Ebusiness has been refined to a point where push can be useful, for example in B2B marketplaces, sending information to buyers or sellers trying to set up trades.

Then there are mobile phones. One could argue a mobile world where servers send out billions of SMS text messages every month to users at set times, with certain types of information is push par excellence. And here now.

Couple this with the advent of web services, where large amounts of data may one day end up pushed to all types of devices, and a damning verdict becomes harder.

Push - a technology time forgot, or a technology that was quietly accepted?