Push Technology

PushTechnology is a system where one set of users maintains a set of channels, and other set of users subscribe to these channels and receive messages posted to them. PosterCentricMessageSubscriptionProtocol is a distributed PushTechnology system that includes MessageReposting, and makes every user a producer, a consumer and a middleman -- PhilipDorrell.

Wouldn't syndication feeds (RSS/Atom) be an example of PushTechnology too? -- AndrewLenards

Indeed, as I've always known it, PushTechnology referred rather specifically to content the consumer did not solicit, including but not limited to:

• full-screen website advertisements that pop up when you click innocently on the page,
• "Pop-behind" advertisement windows, that linger on your desktop undetected until you close the obscuring windows,
• Pop-up advertisements in YouTube videos,
• and more I probably forgotten about.

This definition does not invalidate that originally posted above, as nowhere in this sentence,

and other set of users subscribe to these channels and receive messages posted to them.

does it indicate that the said group of users polls for the posted content. However, this differs explicitly from RSS, whose sole purpose is precisely to poll for the intended content. Hence, RSS exemplifies PullTechnology?.

Note that the two techniques can be combined. For example, many websites post an RSS feed for their content. Upon visiting the content, however, PushTechnology is used to force the viewer to deal with advertisements.

--Samuel A. Falvo II