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6.1 Platform Initiatives Affecting Push Technology
In order to enable unattended push content delivery during the wee hours of the morning it is necessary for the end-user to leave their PC turned on. Many people are hesitant to do so, concerned over the additional power usage or wear on the system.
The push technology community should take note of the OnNow platform initiative (http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/pcfuture/onnow1.htm). This initiative involves the industry-wide coordination of PC platform contributors to provide the PC with the ability to
How Push Applications Will Be Affected:
Push applications and technologies will want to tie their scheduling capabilities to the OnNow extension APIs. OnNow permits off-hour and non-supervised Internet access and maintenance, while facilitating effective power management by returning the PC to its original power management mode.
OnNow enabled PCs also makes it easier for push subscribers to access the content immediately when they turn on their systems.
6.2 Browser Push vs. Stand Alone Push Applications
Push technologies will drastically change the way consumers access and use both business and entertainment information and software. Marimba, BackWeb, PointCast, Intermind, Wayfarer, and a host of other third-party push vendors have created a baseline of functionality not currently addressed by browsers. Microsoft and Netscape have both responded by describing future products that incorporate push technologies. In the final analysis, it is probably the desktop that can most influence the structure and success of push technologies. Third-party vendors will try very hard to distinguish their products through value-added features. Both Microsoft and Netscape's desktop architectures will provide plug-ins for third party push vendors.
With Internet Explorer 4.0, Microsoft introduces a new built-in push capability called "Webcasting." Webcasting provides to each user automatic delivery and offline access to website content.
The core of Webcasting is Microsoft's proposed Internet broadcast standard CDF (Channel Definition Format). Microsoft has submitted CDF to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Proponents claim that CDF will eliminate the need for multiple browsers, plug-ins, or proprietary clients to receive pushes from information delivery vendors. CDF is designed to turn any Web server into a push channel without additional work or technology, in effect creating push channels that are, in essence, automated pull from the client. CDF is an application of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML makes it possible to add new markup types to an HTML browser without having to add new HTML tags. More than 30 tool, media, and service companies are backing CDF.
Webcasting is an open, scalable solution that works with any HTTP server, any HTTP proxy, any HTML website, and any Web authoring tool, and scales up to multicast push solutions. Webcasting enables any existing website to be "pushed" without requiring any re-authoring of or modifications to the site. This "push,"--or "smart pull"--is accomplished by crawling the site on a scheduled basis. Content authors can then optimize and personalize this Webcasting experience by authoring a "Channel," i.e., by creating a single file that indexes the content on an existing site. This file uses the CDF file format, for indexing and "pushing" structured content on the Internet.
For more information see: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/press/push.htm.
Netscape has announced a new component in the Netscape Communicator* suite called Netcaster (previously known by the code-name Constellation). Netcaster enables push delivery of information to the desktop and offline browsing.
With Netcaster, any channel can be anchored to the desktop, making it a webtop. A webtop does not integrate with the Windows desktop like Internet Explorer 4.0 does because it is meant to be a cross-platform network interface, not a proprietary, Windows-only interface. The content for webtops is based on HTML and any channel can become a webtop. With webtops, content providers and OEMs can take over desktop real estate that traditionally has been owned by the operating system. Part of the Netcaster architecture includes the Netscape Channel Finder. Channel Finder is the user interface for accessing channels on the Internet. Channel Finder is dynamically served off the Netscape website, so users can subscribe to a list of channels right from the Netcaster user interface.
Netscape's Netcaster differs from Microsoft's CDF technique in that netcasting is implemented with the existing open standards of HTML, Java*, and JavaScript*. Netcaster does not rely upon a CDF file. Netscape matches the CDF functionality by allowing content developers to use JavaScript to specify netcasting parameters.
For more information about Netscape's Netcaster technology see: http://www.netscape.com/flash1/comprod/products/communicator/netcaster_faq.html
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