The renaissance of push

Fashion is a curious thing. Take proprietary online services. Three years ago, every analyst this side of Sigmund Freud was predicting a rapid and bloody demise for AOL, Compuserve and MSN. 'The culture of the Internet is based on freedom of information,' they cried, 'No one wants to read the news according to Microsoft.'

Last week AOL's profits leapt 255 per cent. Yes, the analysts got it wrong, and it was all down to a masterstroke of re-branding to keep pace with fashion.

Suddenly, proprietary online service providers became Internet Service Providers with the added bonus of extra information no one else offers.

Then their transformation was complete with the invention of the term 'portal'. From lepers to angels in the blink of an eye. And all by being dedicated followers of fashion.

Well, the same is about to happen in another key market sector. Remember push technology? The phrase has all self-respecting Web gurus rushing for the shower, lest they be tainted by such talk. Yet 18 months ago 'push' was 'the future'.

This time though, rather than wait for the vendors of push software to save themselves using marketing tricks, it's us who should be less fickle.

The problem with push technology in the past was that it was about as refined as a smack in the face with a sledgehammer. Pointcast was the classic example. New information downloaded every five minutes clogged up networks, while the application itself took up your entire screen, forcing you to stop everything else that you were doing.

But refine the idea a little, and you can come up with something a damn sight more useful.

Look at what the BBC offers. A slimline news ticker that runs along the bottom of your screen using up hardly any space, and more importantly, hardly any bandwidth. A ticker box of that kind could also be used as an extension of an intranet.

Take a research and development environment. Virtual workgroups are commonplace, and, as often as not, they involve people who work in totally different time zones. Perhaps a little alert which appears to show when a group member has just fired up their computer on the other side of the world would be helpful - it could save a lot of time trying to calculate how many hours ahead or behind they are and a lot of money leaving endless voicemail messages. Alternatively, this small 'infobox' could alert you when a high-priority mail has just arrived.

All it takes is a little imagination, and there are one thousand and one things 'subtle push technology' could be used for.

So come on, let's swallow our pride and don't let fashion destroy all the good ideas.