The Push for Push and What It Says About New Media

Sometimes I don’t want to go search around for Internet content. Instead, I let it come to me--automatically.

That’s the theory behind the push for push technology, this season’s darling among electronic publishers. Forget the fact that as a society we are just starting to create any reliable business basis to Web publishing. Move on already to vehicles that push information to the consumer all by themselves.

You may have heard of PointCast, a service that periodically and automatically downloads information from the Web, in several different content categories, to a personal computer screen saver. Now there are a slew of competing efforts.

I’ve sat in rooms where the PointCast software is automatically displaying information, and the reaction is interesting and pretty universal: Conversation dwindles, and in the middle of a business meeting people are all watching the screen, just as they might if a television was turned on.

The screen is colorful and fast-changing, displaying news and weather and sports and, of course, ads. The ads feature lively animations, the “channels” change every few minutes, and it is simplicity itself to click on a button and get further information.

The information comes from Time Inc.’s Pathfinder, from newspapers including the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times (depending on the region) and from Quote.com, HotWired, Reuters, the Environmental News Network, CNN and CNNfn, among others. (Times Mirror Co., publisher of The Times, owns a small stake in PointCast.)

Of course, there is a downside. The software seems to require a disproportionate amount of computer memory, and desktops that are used for other purposes crash too frequently to keep consumers satisfied.

We can expect these push technologies to become even more television-like. They offer low-bandwidth ways to use multimedia files, they can display sound and video as well as text, and they are going to become a centerpiece discussion in the browser wars among Netscape, Microsoft and others.

PointCast, for example, has signed a deal with Microsoft to be included with the Microsoft Web browser. In return, PointCast offers the MSNBC Web site.

And where browser wars go, so goes Internet traffic and advertising.

Other push technology products automatically route text files by e-mail to targeted audiences or deliver Web pages to designated receivers on a periodic basis. Others drop down screens in the midst of other Web pages to display the personalized information I forgot I might have ordered.

Some of the industry watchers see this new push for push as an important indicator. Jupiter Communications, which tracks Internet trends, predicts that perhaps a third of all electronic revenues will go to push technology products over the next three or four years.

Push means that publishers will be “broadcasting” or “programming” more--and not playing host to people who want to publish their own materials, the pictures of their children, the diatribe against the boss and the stuff of personal home pages. It is an interesting turnabout for a medium that has prided itself on the democracy of opinion.

And consumer-oriented push products will be trying to accomplish something similar to what the commercial online services pride themselves on: offering easy access to a broad range of information and services.

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In fact, America Online says it will launch in a month or so its own version of such a PointCast competitor, called Driveway. The feed will include news, weather, sports, AOL guide information and material from selected AOL content providers.

Microsoft is talking about something called Active Desktop, while Netscape has a project called InBox Direct and Individual Inc. has FreeLoader.

What does the push for push tell us about the way new media are developing?

* New offerings. Consumers can expect a bewildering new set of displays under the term “push.” And I worry sometimes that new stuff is being introduced just because the technology is now available, not because it satisfies any clear need.

* Convergence. Push will accelerate the convergence between television, computer and other multimedia forms.

* Speed of development. Electronic publishing is still changing extremely rapidly; every time I think I understand what’s going on, there’s a new set of technologies, a new set of promises and a bevy of businesses ready to bet on them.

* The profit problem. Just who will pay for all of this providing of information is still to be determined. It’s a sure bet that depending on consumers to pay directly for this will not fly.

I already receive a fine general-interest push product in the form of my daily newspaper, for example, and most newspapers are finding that it is difficult to charge for even a customized electronic news report.

I mention newspapers because news seems a staple of push. And, in fact, while the names of the delivery companies are changing, they all seem to be turning to brand-name producers of news or other timely information to deliver. Look for the original publishers of the content of push technologies to take over the businesses: News Corp., for example, has been in talks to buy PointCast, though no deal appears imminent.

My only big bet at the moment is that all of this is a push to watch.

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Terry Schwadron is editor of Life & Style and oversees latimes.com, The Times’ Web site. He can be reached via e-mail at terry.schwadron@latimes.com