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Richard Layman wrote:
>FYI and hopefully this will spark 
>discussion of push vs. pull.

Interesting topic, one that I think is a critical problem for companies
who provide content on the web.

My company, Paracel, Inc., provides real time news, delivered via the
web to corporate sites (as well as retail customers such as Ziff Davis
and their personal view service (http://www.pview.com)).  Our problem
with our corporate customers, which I think is probably reflected in any
other content-based site, is getting people to return to the service. 

Whether it's forgetfulness or laziness or whatever, having to boot up
your browser, type in the address, and log into our service seems to be
very difficult for our customers to do every morning.  Even if they find
the service useful, the fact they have to consciously pull the
information from the web makes it less likely they'll use it.

That's why services such as Pointcast are so appealing--you do nothing,
and you still get your news. I also believe that's why Individual has
been trying to get on the "push" end of things--i.e. acquiring
Freeloader, working with Netscape, etc.

We've had many of our users comment they'd rather get an email with the
top stories of the day, than log onto our site and check the latest
news.  Most people aren't actively looking for information, and don't
want to--the push model is much more appropriate for them than relying
on them to pull down your page.

(On a separate note, on the query about profitability of information
providers on the web, out of Individual, Inc., Pointcast, Desktopdata,
and us, Individual looks to be losing lots of money, Pointcast is still
getting external financing (but making ad revenue), Desktopdata is the
only profitable enterprise, and we're still in the startup phase...)

Benjamin Kuo


--
Benjamin Kuo                       Tel:   (818) 666-6688 ext 655
Paracel, Inc.                      Fax:   (818) 666-6677
80 S. Lake Avenue, Suite 650       Email: kuo@paracel.com
Pasadena, CA 91101                 WWW:   http://www.paracel.com
"Real time, custom filtered corporate news and information"
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