Push technology, also called netcasting, is a World Wide Web (WWW or web) applied data distribution technology designed to provide end users with personalized web access. The owner of a web site actively sends, or "pushes" information to registered Internet users, either automatically or at specified intervals. Generally, the application of push technology is usually initiated by the user or pre-selected by a web site administrator, and arrives only as the result of client requests. Push was developed by information services companies (i.e., the broadcast media) as a means of (1) promoting ("pushing") products or services onto potential customers and (2) relieving users from the task of manually retrieving ("pulling") requested information from the web.

In the past and even today the web is mostly based on pull technologies, where the user must actively request a web page before it is delivered. The broadcast media, on the...