Last March, Wired told you to "kiss your browser goodbye" ("Push!" Wired 5.03). Perhaps we should rephrase that. In early 1997, publishers had high hopes for the new push systems, which could automatically feed personalized content to readers rather than waiting for them to pull it from the Web. Inspired by PointCast’s success, dozens of new companies started developing push products. Netscape and Microsoft announced push capability in their forthcoming browsers. Business Week's February 24, 1997, cover story declared "Webcasting" the new model for Internet content delivery.
But push has fallen far short of the scenarios spun a year ago. What passes as "personalization" today amounts to little more than simple keyword matching or filtering out content categories. And until cable or xDSL modems give home users video capability, small text-based items like stock prices and news headlines are the only content capable of being pushed to large audiences.
Even the word "push" is falling from favor in product descriptions and press releases. Marketers now speak only of Web site "subscriptions," invoking images of the humble daily newspaper instead of a full range of personalized content. PointCast – the original push-media success story – was recently audited as having more than 1 million monthly viewers. Yet even PointCast's Jim Wickett, senior VP of worldwide business development, insists that "PointCast isn't push. It's a news and information service."
The most surprising roadblock for push, though, comes not from technology, but from the intended audience. Push media's promises are often met with outright resentment from computer owners glad to be free of TV's broadcast model. "Many people immediately recognized the democratic potential of the Web," says Julie Petersen, editor at Ikonic, a Web site builder for such companies as Microsoft and Virgin Records. "Consumers are smarter than media organizations thought. When push came along, they said, `I've seen this one-way communication before. I'm not going to accept it on the Web.'"
Ironically, one successful push technology to date is already in its third decade: email. Internet users loathe spam, but eagerly sign up for regular mailings they deem useful. Netscape's In-Box Direct emails HTML from more than 125 publishers to an estimated 3 million subscribers. Why has email succeeded where pop-up video has stalled? Because consumers have grown acclimated to it over time, rather than having it thrust upon them as a new paradigm by publishers desperate for larger audiences. "People are already programmed to check their email once a day," explains Netscape spokesperson David Bottoms. "We've built on that by enriching email with HTML and links to the Web."
Still, few publishers are willing to admit giving up on the push medium. Instead, push's advent looks to be more evolution than revolution. "Push is an investment," says Dave Fester, Microsoft's group project manager. "It's not magic fairy dust you sprinkle on a product to make it sell better."
This article originally appeared in the March issue of Wired magazine.
To subscribe to Wired magazine, place an order through our Web site, send email to subscriptions@wired.com, or call +1 (800) SO WIRED.
