The former next great thing.
Push, of course, never really caught on. It's over seven years ago already that
we were first advised to prepare ourselves to kiss
our browser goodbye, but for some, to my mind not surprising, reason, that
didn't happen. Actually, only one year later it had become abundantly clear that
even if the technology was available, people
weren't begging for it. Interestingly, that Wired update told us that Push,
in a different format, was already highly popular - as e-mail newsletters. That
article suggested that the popularity of these was due to the fact that they had
grown on us, rather than being thrown upon us. I think there was another, simpler
reason. Before the days of unlimited spam we felt that we had control over our
inboxes. When we chose to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter, no matter how glitzy,
it was clear to us that it was our choice. Thus it wasn't Push, coming toward
us from outside and at its own pace, but something that had clear and predefined
paramaters. Though it came into our territory, it didn't infringe on that territory.
Some people suggest that Push, specifically in the form of RSS feeds, is about
to enjoy
a comeback. I admit that I really don't know. Though I was happy to see it
fade into oblivion back then, RSS, with which I'm still unfamiliar,
seems to have positive aspects.
I am, however, quite familiar with a precursor to Push,
one which I wrote about long ago, but which was pulled back from fuzzy memory
by a phone conversation this past week.
Go to: Confessions of a conservative technology freak.