PCWeek coverage of Push wars

Rohit Khare (khare@pest.w3.org)
Tue, 11 Feb 97 15:59:28 -0500


PC Week has put together a pretty interesting package of info about push
technology this week. Looks like the hook is the Demo'96 industry insiders'
conference which will see the debut of a half-dozen pushers. They call it a
"steel-cage death match, Web style" :-)

-> http://www.pcweek.com/business/0210/10push.html

Really good reading: Profile of Kim Polese, "something of a Silicon Valley
sex symbol". She's even made it to People, apparently.

-> http://www.pcweek.com/business/0210/10polese.html

The real irony, as Jim Gettys caustically observed, is that PointCast, the
leader, isn't even real push technology: it's implemented by a pull-mode
polling agent :-)

RK

_Some 19 companies of all shapes and sizes have crowded into the "push"
market. And it's getting confusing. Here's a breakdown: Platform developers
enable content players to go directly to the desktop. The technology providers
sell products that allow corporations or services to push their own data or
applications. Services, which depend on ads and subscriptions, aggregate and
deliver content, mostly to consumers.

Platforms

Company (platform)

* Microsoft (Active Desktop)
* Netscape (Constellation)

_

Technologies

Company (product)

* Marimba (Castanet)
* Wayfarer (Incisa)
* Diffusion (IntraExpress)
* BackWeb Technologies (BackWeb)
* First Floor (Smart Delivery, others)
* NETdelivery (ZIPcode, ZIPdelivery)
* PointCast (I-Server)
* Lanacom (Headliner)

_

Services

Company (service)
_
* PointCast (PointCast)
* Individual (Freeloader, NewsPage, First Intranet news service)
* MyWay Online (MyWay Agent)
* ForeFront Group (WebWhacker)
* Netscape (In-Box Direct)
* IFusion Com (ArrIve)
* Intermind (Intermind Communicator)
* US Interactive (Digital Bindery)
* America Online/First Floor (Driveway)*
* Berkeley Systems (AfterDark Online)

*Will ship in the summer