Netcasting

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In Netscape terminology, netcasting is a method of pushing websites over an IP-based network to the local computer ; at Microsoft , a comparable technology is called webcasting ; The latter must not be confused with webcasting in the sense of streaming media .

History and Development

The first netcasting and webcasting products appeared on the market around 1996 . In 1997, the Californian company Pointcast was the market leader in netcasting . In the summer of 1997, Pointcast already had two million downloads of its free push software and mainly supplied users with news from various agencies and magazines.

In forecasts from these years, sales in the billions from advertising revenue were announced. Companies such as Netscape, Microsoft , Bertelsmann as well as various business services, providers and operators of search engines followed the supposed new "megatrend".

Critics from the online scene were rather relaxed about these attempts to prioritize push technologies. As long as there is the possibility of deciding what to see, read, find and discover with a click of the mouse, the pushers would at best dominate part of the World Wide Web .

Just one year after the onset of the hype phase, the idea of ​​ubiquitous netcasting was buried again: For example, in a report in Online Today magazine from the summer of 1998, Push was declared as "anti-trend" (article Anti-Trend Push (Trends). In: Online Today 08/1998, p. 33).

providers

The providers of netcasting solutions included a .:

  • After Dark online
  • Backweb
  • Castanet
  • Datachannel
  • diffusion
  • Downtown
  • Individual
  • Intel : Intercast
  • Marimba
  • Microsoft : Active Desktop, Channels
  • Netscape: Constellation
  • Newscatcher
  • Pointcast
  • Smart Newscan Internet
  • Tibco

criticism

The main criticisms of webcasting can be summarized as follows:

  • Webcasting is nothing new . If you want a TV-like Internet that can be used passively, you could instead switch on the TV and select the channel that is most interesting for you.
  • Webcasting contradicts the basic idea of ​​the internet . The push principle nullifies one of the great advantages of the Internet: the ability of the user to actively research the information they need and to be their own gatekeeper . Third parties decide which information is "pushed" even more than in broadcasting , and commercial interests dominate even more, because personalization and user profiles enable a more precise target group to be addressed.
  • Webcasting wastes bandwidth . Similar to a daily newspaper , netcasting provides a variety of information options. With netcasting, information is permanently transmitted that is only partially used; this means that bandwidth is permanently occupied. This waste of resources is particularly critical in company intranets that are used for business-critical purposes.

The journalist Heinrich Seeger scoffed at the numerous criticisms of netcasting in a gloss in the specialist magazine Global Online :

"Without any (inter) activity, the Internet comes naturally like a bone to a dog, couch potatoes in front of the television will in future become mouse potatoes on the computer" (see above).

See also

literature

  • Heinrich Seeger: Webcasting. Full program on all channels (cover story). In: Global Online 4 (1997): 26-31
  • Jens Jacobsen: Butler services from the Internet (multimedia). In: Medium Magazin 8 (1997): 62-64